Not Just a Student
by QueenOfTheStorms
Summary: When Master Shifu adopted Tigress as a cub from the orphanage, Tai Lung was still his student at the Jade Palace. The untold story of the bond Tigress and Tai Lung formed, the known tragedy that occurred and the unexpected aftermath.
1. Story Time

**So I've had this in my head for ages now so I have finally decided to get it out there - the first chapter at least :D**

 **Disclaimer: Don't own the characters or the movies, all rights to Dreamworks, though I suppose I do own some parts of the plot in this story and any OC's that appear.**

* * *

 _"Before Tai Lung …"_

The tiger stood in the doorway of which doors she had just thrown open with her usual look of disgust towards the panda who had to be nearing obesity – if not already there. His mere size alone was more than enough evidence for the leader of the Furious Five to believe he wasn't the true Dragon Warrior, that and his very obvious lack in knowledge let alone experience on the art of Kung Fu which she along with the rest of the five had so much respect for and took so much pride in, unlike this fat, disgusting excuse of an animal who only cared for noodles and treating the entire concept as though it were a baby's playtime.

The scattered kind gestures towards the panda from Viper, Crane, Mantis and Monkey hadn't gone unnoticed by Tigress in the last couple days – much to her disbelief. But she couldn't have cared less about him and she made her hatred for him bluntly obvious – even when he wasn't within her sights. Since the afternoon of when he quite literally fell to the earth from the sky; landing in a dusty, black and white heap on the ground, knocked out cold, Tigress had had nothing but downright disgust for him – her temper worsened to that of almost Tai Lung himself when she realized that Oogway had chosen **him** of all animals to be the legendary Dragon Warrior.

 _"_ _Master ..._ _Are you pointing at me?"_

Tigress had asked this on the desperate hope that the ancient, respected tortoise had meant to point at her before that – that **thing** fell in front of her. But that hope crashed to the ground similar to that of the crash that just happened as Oogway declared the confused, muddleheaded panda as the Dragon Warrior - hell - even one of the bunnies watching from the side would have been a better choice than that.

Tigress had bounded furiously back to the Jade Palace in an impressive four massive leaps; the anger that had built up inside the tiger had been enough to kill so she had been somewhat glad the rest of the Five hadn't immediately followed after her. Tigress had nearly smashed the Seven Swinging Clubs of Instant Oblivion to smithereens in the training room and the Jade Tortoise of Wisdom was still rocking a solid ten minutes after she had harshly taken her anger out on it (she had been mildly surprised afterwards that no cracks had formed).

But that was only the beginning …

Since that day, three of the clubs had smashed under Tigress' iron-like fists, causing the Seven Swinging Clubs to temporarily become the Four Swinging Clubs until they got replaced, but that would not be for a while yet as everyone had other things on their minds; the big (and fat) main thing being the panda. While four of the Five had eventually shown kindness towards him, Tigress refused to show any sort of remorse towards the so called 'Dragon Warrior' ( _'Bah'_ she thought furiously).

Tonight however, as Tigress retired to her room for the night, she couldn't help overhearing something of a forbidden subject that had popped up in conversation in the Pandas room between Viper, Mantis and the Panda himself as they were attempting to show a friendlier side to him by performing acupuncture (Tigress didn't see the point in this when they had told her earlier – they were **never** going to find the right nerve points underneath all that fat).

"There was once a time when Master Shifu actually use to smile"

Tigress heard Vipers quiet gentle voice from the other side of the door as she walked back to her room from yet another merciless attack on the training room (She had to get control of her anger one of these days; four clubs were now a mere three) and reluctantly slowed her pace past the door to listen in.

"No" The Pandas disbelieving voice made her ears want to bleed but she stood there regardless; knowing deep down where the conversation was sooner or later going to lead.

"Yes" Mantis' voice – very low for a creature his size – piped up from the other side.

"But that was before …"

Viper trailed off and Tigress knew why. This subject had been strictly forbidden for discussion by Master Shifu since the day the Five were formed and though he had ordered this to everyone, he had aimed subtly yet specifically in her direction the day he gave the order out, Tigress understood that also but the other four hadn't even noticed.

"Before what?"

Tigress had already known the Panda would ask – why wouldn't he? He was nosey about the littlest of things; the Panda had asked Master Shifu about nearly everything that anyone could possibly think of about the Jade Palace since his training began (if 'training' was what you wanted to call it). They could barely get through two minutes without him piping up with a question about Shifu or the Palace or even about the Five. Tigress had had to severely restrain herself from beating his pea-brain head to a pulp every time he opened his big mouth. But this subject …

Tigress found that she couldn't let Viper or Mantis become the orator of this conversation so before either of them could answer the Pandas latest question; she banged open the doors to his room and, for once, answered it herself.

"Before Tai Lung"

The name dripped off of her tongue like poison as her blazing orange eyes met the Panda's green ones. She hated to admit it, but despite the humiliating size of the Panda – what was his name? – Po, he did have very nice eyes; but she was sooner going to be head crushed by the clubs than say that out loud to him; she was never going to allow him the privilege of a compliment from her – **ever**.

The space had gone deadly quiet for a second. Viper looked as though her huge eyes were going to fall out of her tiny little head at the sight of Tigress and Po was looking at her as if she had just smashed the doors down to kindling (which she supposed, if she'd had banged any harder on the doors, she just might have).

"Uh Yeah, we're not really supposed to talk about him" Cranes tall shadow appeared from the room over as his voice projected into the room.

"Well, if he's **going** to stay here … he should know" Tigress wanted to kick herself now for very reluctantly accepting that no matter what anyone in the Jade Palace tried to throw on the Panda, he wasn't going to give up or leave (Possibly another very small factor that both infuriated and mildly impressed her – and also another thing she was never going to let past her lips).

"Guys, Guys I know about Tai Lung …"

He knew about Tai Lung … He. Knew. About. Tai Lung. The Panda's words stuck to Tigress' brain like a dozen leeches and the anger inside her filled her soul. How dare he claim to know about the villainous Snow Leopard and the crimes he committed? How dare he mumble in a few short words what he thought he knew about Shifu's former student and adoptive son? How **dare** he? He didn't know. No one knew; not even the rest of the Five. No one knew the true story except herself!

Tigress stopped and took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She was now standing right in front of Po who had, to her slight pleasure, cowered down from her eyes as if terrified she may laser him with her glare.

Tigress shook her head and discarded her small moment of private enjoyment before starting the story that everyone in the room (sans Po) knew.

"He wasn't just a student …

"Shifu found him as cub … and he raised him as his son …" Tigress paused a few times to remember the story everyone else knew carefully so she didn't accidentally let slip the story that was locked up behind the bars of her mind and her mind alone.

"And when the boy showed talent in Kung Fu … Shifu trained him … Believed in him … He told him he was destined for greatness …"

Tigress paused again, making it seem as though she was thinking carefully about the story when in truth, she had started fighting inside to keep her voice from wobbling, even in the slightest. Once she had forcefully regained composure, she continued "… It was never enough for Tai Lung … he wanted the Dragon Scroll … but Oogway saw darkness in his heart at refused."

Knowing that the next bit of the story was the hardest bit to say, Tigress took a couple of deep breaths before continuing on.

"Outraged, Tai Lung laid waste to the valley … He tried to take the Scroll by force … and Shifu had to destroy what he had created …

"But how could he …" Tigress stopped abruptly as her voice cracked ever so slightly on the last word. She growled low to cover it up should anyone have heard it; Monkey and Crane had open the door slightly from the room over and were listening into the story they all knew. When Tigress was absolutely certain no one had heard her uninvited flicker of emotion she went on.

"When Shifu was defeated … it was Oogway who had to use the nerve attack to stop him…"

Tigress paused at the heart breaking memories of that day … the day no one knew she had been there to witness … as a young, innocent tiger cub.

"Shifu loved Tai Lung like he had never loved anyone before … or since."

Tigress finished the story to greet the dead air that followed – the story **everyone** in the room was now aware of, including the Panda. Tigress sighed silently, very nearly letting the emotions of her untold story astray. Taking a sharp intake of breath, she brought her eyes back from the memories to her normal glare on the Panda and growled "And now … he has a chance to make things right … to train the true Dragon Warrior."

Her next sentence, while it infuriated her to say it, also gave her quite an amount of pleasure to say it out loud to him "And he stuck with you; a big, fat panda who treats it like a joke."

Some part of the tiger half hoped that maybe the story would potentially scare the Panda into making a run for it, or even make him appreciate the title of the Dragon Warrior that he had ridiculously been given, however both those hopes hit rock bottom when he abruptly appeared to have lost all control of his facial nerves and pulled the most stupid face at her.

That was when the tiger exploded.

" **THAT IS IT!"**

She threw her clawed paw back to strike him down; drowning the tiny part of her brain that was yelling out to her that Master Shifu would personally kill her himself if she did this – at this point however, her anger overtook her mind by quite a margin. It was just in time however that Mantis threw himself in front of Po's wind-changed looking face, looking apologetic.

"WAIT!" He yelled, stopping Tigress in the nick of time from clawing the Pandas face to shreds as she so badly wanted to do.

"My fault, I accidentally tweaked his facial nerve." Mantis explained hurriedly.

So he really **had** lost control of the facial nerve. Truthfully, Tigress could hardly have cared about what had happened and she worked hard not to express it – or gag – as the Panda fell forward; exposing a back simply covered in pins. In amongst the anger, a flicker of bewilderment crossed her face at Mantis as he poked gently at the seemingly paralyzed 'Dragon Warrior'.

"And may also have stopped his heart" Mantis concluded worriedly.

Tigress didn't see a bad side to that last sentence and it was very tempting to point out that it made no difference now if she turned his face into shreds of paper or not but she held her tongue – with difficulty as Mantis darted around pulling all the pins out of the pandas back. Monkey and Crane; now that the story had come to an end had gone back to the privacy of their own rooms and Tigress knew she had to do the same before she lost control – again.

Without so much as a 'goodnight' to the other two who stayed in to take care of the temporarily demented panda, she stomped out through the door and slammed them shut with the same amount of power she had used to bang them open half an hour earlier. Opening the doors to her own room, she slipped inside and closed it quickly – before letting her anger subside into sadness; sliding down the door to plop down on the floor, letting her head fall into her paws.

 _'I know about Tai Lung …'_

No. No he didn't. He didn't know, even after the story she had told. He didn't know. The rest of the Five didn't know; Tigress had trusted no one with the true forbidden story that was locked in the furthest corner of her mind, never to be opened again. The story only she knew ...

No one knew except her about the big burly Snow Leopard whom the little tiger cub; fresh out of the orphanage had met for the first time when she had sneaked into the training room where Shifu had forbade her from entering until she was a little older to find out exactly what that banging was that kept constantly coming from the mysterious room most of the day and nearly half the night...

* * *

 _From behind one of the pillars which concealed her tiny form nicely, the tiger cub watched; mesmerized by the Snow Leopard as he fought against the dozens of tree trunk-like poles covered in hard metal knobs (Wooden Warriors as she later came to call them) with sharp kicks and punches. She had never been more intrigued at all before in her short life. She knew she shouldn't be in here. Heaven knew what Master Shifu would do if he found out she was in the one place he had specifically told her not to go._

 _She was thrown out of that thought when the older feline smashed through one of the poles with what what looked like next to no effort. He straightened himself up and got ready to start up again, showing no signs of tiredness or fatigue at all. Tigress moved a little bit further round the pillar so she could get a better look, but she didn't take into account what may or may not give her away in here. She only figured that out when he turned and looked right at her._

 _Orange eyes met orange eyes for a mere moment before the tiger cub threw her little body back against the pillar; breathing hard. Had he seen her?_

 _It was a minute of silence that felt like an eternity; the cub's eyes were full of fear and her breathing was rapidly turning into hard panting; was he going to investigate? Find her? Hurt her? … Kill her? (Her tiny tiger cub mind could be a bit over-dramatic at times)._

 _Then she heard a voice. It wasn't angry or nasty as such, at least it didn't sound that way. It sounded more curious than anything._

 _"I know you're there" It was a quiet tone, so that was a good start. It was also laced with what sounded like he could be smiling or smirking, whichever one it was it didn't sound so bad._

 _"Come on out … I ain't going to hurt you."_


	2. Buddies

**A/N: Just a heads up; I've reworked this chapter just a tad. I got a small idea that I knew had to go somewhere and the only place I could fit it in was this chapter.**

* * *

 _"...I won't hurt you."_

 _As hard as Tigress tried; her futile attempts to move her frozen limbs failed something miserably; her mind couldn't make the connection to them to say it was okay to move. She was terrified **.** Her time at the orphanage had consisted of the fellow lambs and bunnies running away in fear of her – because it was she who terrified them. Unintentionally of course but still terrified them._

 _But this was the first time ever that she had had something to be scared of – well … technically the second time; the first time had been when she was afraid that she would live her days wondering in the orphanage – that she would never get adopted. The other residing children hadn't been the only ones afraid of her – the potential parents had been afraid of her as well (her time at the orphanage had been a series of dark day she didn't care to relive)._

 _That is until Master Shifu._

 _That's right, Master Shifu! Master Shifu had adopted her – and in doing so had disintegrated her fear of permanently staying in the orphanage. Maybe … just maybe, this gentle, low, slightly tired voice speaking to her this time could be the key to killing this fear that filled her small form now._

 _"Don't be afraid" The voice said; followed by a light-hearted laugh "Come out now"_

 _Slowly, the cub's fear-soaked limbs began to dry and her panting subsided back to normal breaths as she coaxed movement back into her little paws. Watching the wall opposite her, she watched with huge orange eyes as a gigantic shadow grew upon it, outlining the Snow Leopard's massive muscly form. She could feel the fear uncomfortably tickling her as it nearly etched itself back inside but then the voice spoke again._

 _"It's alright little one; I promise you I won't harm you"_

 _The fear scurried away again as Tigress took as deep a breath as her small lungs could muster and took the tiniest step out from behind her protective stone pillar – just enough so one furry ear and one eyeball could be visible to the stranger who had caught her out._

 _He was huge, furry and fit. His humongous paws – one of which had stretched out to coax her further out from her pillar of protection – were quite fitting with his even more bigger form and big enough for her almost to fit her tiny form inside the smooth palm …_ and squash you _her minds scared little voice piped up as terror started up again in her fragile limbs. To be fair, his size alone was enough to make any child who only made it to knee-height on him cower in fear in front of such a big, almost fully grown leopard as what he was._

 _It was his face however that made her terror subside as quickly as it arrived. His eyes – that were as bright orange as what hers were - were as kind as the eyes Shifu had when he told her he was taking her home from the orphanage. They were firm but still soft, still blazing a little with adrenaline from the attack on the metal knobbed, tree trunk- like poles. His furry lips bore a smile that reached these eyes comfortably; a gentle smile, a nice, kind smile that made Tigress offer a small smile of her own back "H-hi."_

 _The Snow Leopard spoke with the voice that had calmed the cub down in an instant "Hey there." He stepped completely out of the training equipment and leaned himself up against one of the stone pillars (not the one that Tigress had been hiding behind)_

 _"What's your name little girl?"_

 _Tigress had now moved round so she was now completely vulnerable to this animals size and strength. She wasn't scared now – maybe a little nervous, but not scared._

 _"T-Tigress" She squeaked out in a high pitched voice that was the complete opposite to the low, purring voice of the Leopard._

 _"Name, not species."_

 _Tigress looked at him, confused "My name_ is _Tigress."_

 _"... Tigress? Really?" Now it was him who sounded confused, and the cub could not work out why that was the case. She crossed her little paws over her chest and gave him a rather annoyed pout._

 _"What's so wrong about that?"_

 _The Leopard gave a small shake of his huge head, looking a little bewildered "Well ... nothing, I suppose ... very original"_

 _"Well what's your name?" She asked._

 _The leopard gave a low chuckle "Not 'Snow Leopard', I can tell you that now."_

 _"Why would it be ... oh" It was then that Tigress suddenly understood the confusion. "I didn't think about it like that ... It's just what Master Shifu called me ... By that time, anything was better than 'monster'._

 _"Okay, you have to be kidding me on_ that _one." He couldn't have sounded more disbelieving at that. "No one actually called you a monster, did they? You're only two feet tall!"_

 _"To you, I am!" Tigress pointed out, a little louder than what she meant to, but then her voice dropped back to barely a whisper. "I wish I could say I was joking. But it's true." The monster no one wanted. Tigress shut her eyes tight in an attempt to block out the unwanted memories of the fellow orphans running away from her screaming that tedious word over and over again. "I'm not sure if I ever did have a proper name. I never knew my parents ..."_

 _The Leopard gave a very quick nod and straightened up "Hey, you know what, never mind. Tigress sounds great. I think it suits you. Master Shifu made a good choice." He then turned and started back towards the poles again. Tigress took a breath and followed behind him slowly._

 _"Well, Not Snow Leopard, what actually is your name?"_

 _He paused and looked back over his shoulder at her. He wasn't angry or annoyed from what she could tell. He was silent for a few beats then gave her light smile "Tai Lung."_

 _"Tai Lung, huh? ... Cool name." The cubs comment was genuine. She did think the name was cool, but a small part of her did now wish that the red panda had been more unique with her name as well._ Guess Master Shifu _was_ a bit more original with his name than mine.

 _"Yep, don't mind it all too much myself." Tai Lung turned away from her again and leaped into the air, grabbing one of the wooden beams in the ceiling and flipped himself gracefully, landing in the middle of the arena with barely a sound - Which Tigress wouldn't have thought possible for an animal his size. Tigress was only just aware that with her jaw slack and her wide eyes, she must have looked absolutely ridiculous. A snort from Tai Lung when he turned back to look at her gave her that answer immediately. "_ _What were you doing behind that pillar anyway?" Tai Lung asked "Spying on me were you?"_

 _"Um..." Tigress wasn't sure how to answer that, since in a way, she supposed she had been. She backed up a step, finally breaking her gaze at him for her eyes to rest on her back paws instead._ _"I … I … no I … I wasn't … trying … I … I didn't mean …" Her words were coming out in embarrassing spurts and squeaks as she wracked her brain to try and form a proper sentence to spit out as to why she had been hiding there watching him._

 _A deep laugh stopped her mid-word. Tai Lung had thrown back his head and his large torso shook with the laughter that followed. It was a loud laugh – one that filled the whole room – but it was a good laugh, a laugh which held no anger or annoyance towards her. Tigress liked this laugh._

 _"I'm only teasing you little girl" Tai Lung said with a chuckle as he turned to where the trunk-like poles were "Come, let me introduce you to my buddies"_

 _"Buddies?" The cub let the confused look overtake her features. There were others in this room? She thought it was just Tai Lung and herself (And even then, she shouldn't actually be in here). She plodded cautiously further towards the Snow Leopard looking around the huge, echoic room for these 'buddies' that he had claimed were also in there with them. She tried not to think about what would happen in Shifu walked in and saw her – she would be in so much trouble for being specifically where he told her not to go – But Tai Lung was making these fears of Shifu's wrath disappear swiftly as he slung one arm over the top of one the poles she had seen him punching when she had first poked her head around the big wooden doors._

 _"These are my buddies" Tai Lung told her with a slight smirk "They pack quite a punch" He patted the top of one of them with one heavy paw._

 _Tigress raised an eyebrow curiously at the Wooden Warriors. "They're your buddies?"_

 _"Fighting buddies ... Solid -" He jumped up, turned a full three sixty degree turn and kicked it hard. Tigress had a split second to realize what was happening before the whole pole basically exploded, sending wood and metal knobs flying in all directions "- But not solid enough nowadays." Tai Lung finished matter-of-fact-ly. "Oh, sorry."_

 _Tigress finished up the coughing fit that had come with the dust cloud that had transpired from the destruction of the pole. She had backed up a few steps and now had her back up against the wall of the arena. With one final deep breath she looked at older feline - and her face broke out in a grin, "that was impressive."_

 _The snow leopard shook his head and shrugged "Oh, that was nothing. I can do way more damage than that." The way he said it was rather dismissive but the cub have sworn there was another emotion that flashed through his eyes for a split second. Tigress couldn't tell for certain was it was - it was gone too quick for her to fully see it - but it almost looked like it could've been close to amazement. But maybe she just imagined it, and even if she hadn't, she couldn't think on why he'd be amazed. The cub crossed her arms loosely over her chest and gave him a small shrug herself "Still the coolest thing I've seen..."_

 _... And there it was again. This time she knew she'd seen it._

 _" **Tai Lung!** "_

 _Tigress nearly shed her stripy little pelt as Shifu's deep voice bellowed meters from the big wooden doors to the Training Room._

 _Her blood froze in her veins as her little body began to shake wildly; if Shifu walked in through those doors and saw her here he would be **furious**. He'd punish her something awful and possibly even send her back to the orphanage. She didn't want to go back there. She couldn't go back there. She had to move quickly before Shifu opened the doors and caught her out._

 _But before she could even start to think about where she could hide, the doors had started to open. Tigress had nowhere to go. She stood, rooted with fear as the wooden door opened wider and wider – any second now going to expose her shaken figure to her strict adoptive father …_

 _Suddenly, out of nowhere, she was picked up in one large furry paw as if she was a dandelion that got lazily plucked on a summer's day. Tigress barely had time to register what was happening before she found herself safely tucked away; hidden nicely behind Tai Lung's massive furry form – just in the nick of time too as she heard Tai Lung's low voice rumble towards the entrance._

 _"Good afternoon Master" he said stoically – no where near like the tone he had used when he saw her for the first time, "What brings you to my neck of the woods?"_

 _Nothing was said at first. Tigress never knew silence could be so darn loud, it was booming in the tiger cub's ears. She was almost certain that all the Wooden Warriors getting destroyed all at once would have made less noise than the silence right now. She leaned against Tai Lung – trying to tuck herself away in more as she finally heard Shifu's deep voice answer._

 _"I meant not to disturb you Tai Lung; simply checking in. Though I must ask, have you seen anyone this afternoon?"_

 _Tigress closed her eyes tight and nestled in even tighter, trying with all her little might to make herself as invisible as what she possibly could – praying hard that Tai Lung wouldn't give her away._

 _"Other than you, no. I've spent the entire afternoon in the gauntlet, and I can't think who else would come in here - other than Master Oogway."_

 _That same, painful silence answered this reply for what seemed like a lifetime; the little cub didn't dare to even breathe as she felt Tai Lung's warm, ever so slightly damp fur pressed against her. What was Shifu doing? What was he thinking? Could he pick out lies? Tigress knew she probably would have believed the lie Tai Lung had just told – he sounded very believable – but did Shifu?_

 _The silence was deafening; Tigress wasn't sure how much more of it she could take before at last, she heard a rustle from the door._

 _"Very well" Shifu answered calmly "My apologies for disturbing you, I will leave you in peace. Do not spend too much longer in here; I've only just replaced the Wooden Warriors from your acts on them last week, I'd appreciate it if they lasted a little longer this time."_

 _"Yes Master." Tigress could pretty much_ hear _the smirk_ _on the snow leopards mouth. It was now giving her some idea of what Tai Lung meant he said 'that was nothing.'_

 _It wasn't until the entrance doors boomed shut again and Shifu's footsteps retreated until they were drowned out by the breeze outside that Tigress realized she was in desperate need to breathe. She had been holding in air since Shifu had arrived and when she watched a bluish tinge start to seep through her orange, stripy paws she let all the expired air out in one very loud, ungraceful blow; her body falling forwards onto all four paws as she drew in gulp after gulp of delicious air, relief spreading through her as she felt her limbs lose their tension over Shifu's unexpected visit._

 _Tigress only just caught the low mutter from the older feline, "Well that was a bit weird" before she felt something warm and heavy pat her back as she regained posture on her hind legs. She turned to see Tai Lung retreat his right paw from her; His face still held confusion but was also etched with curiosity as well._

 _"Don't die on me now, I've only just met ya." He laughed "But I think I get why you were actually hiding behind that pillar now little girl." He said with a low chuckle; the rest of the confusion leaving his features. Tigress felt her face redden a little bit – much to her annoyance._

 _"Shifu's looking for you isn't he?" Tai Lung asked – no hint of anger in his tone._

 _Tigress gave the tiniest of nods, unsure of what Tai Lung was going to do now he knew the truth._

 _"And … you're not meant to be in here, yes."_

 _Tigress nodded again; her eyes watching her back paws shift nervously from paw to paw as she waited for the Leopards reaction._

 _A soft laugh filled the room; she looked up and saw Tai Lung shake his head in almost a defeated kind of way – the laugh was by no means cruel._

 _"You mischievous little feline you" He said with a teasing smile. Tigress could feel her nerves tingle again as one question now began to bother her – and it was a question she was most nervous of asking._

 _"You won't tell Master Shifu will you?" The cub couldn't help the fear lacing her high voice "He'll be so angry, he'll punish me. Please. Say you won't tell him anything?" She could feel her eyes well up with tears at the thought of him abandoning her back at that orphanage. The thought of going back there was too horrible; she fought to keep the tears at bay – not wanting to cry in front of the Leopard._

 _"Hey, hey take it easy Tigress; if I wanted to rat you out, I would have done it back there and I wouldn't have hid you from view either. It would've saved me a lot more time than going back and telling him now, when I had far better things to do."_

 _He fished out a white handkerchief from the back pocket of the pants he was wearing and handed it to her "Here, mop up."_

 _Tigress wiped away the few stray tears that had leaked from her eyes and sniffed; giving the Leopard a watery smile; feeling relief spread for a second time around._

 _"I kinda like ya little girl; there's a strong spirit in you, and a fiery heart."_

 _Tigress broke into grin "I like you too, you're pretty cool" He was many things actually, but 'cool' was the only word that seemed to stick out in her head._

 _Tai Lung grinned himself, "You better head back to Shifu now though, sounds like he may still be looking for you." He leant forward a little "Tell him you were wondering the palace gardens; he doesn't go there very often and even if he did go there today; you're so tiny he wouldn't have noticed you."_

 _Tigress nodded, not really wanting to leave the place or the Leopard but knowing that he was right; Shifu would still be looking for her – and it may be only minutes before he came back here. She turned reluctantly and leapt – as graciously as what she could –over to the entrance. She turned back to Tai Lung, who attention was now back to the Wooden Warriors._

 _"It was nice meeting you Tai." She squeaked out before reaching up to the handle of the door._

 _You'll be back soon, yeah?"_

 _Tigress nodded excitedly "Yeah, I can do!"_

 _"...cool."_

 _With Tai Lung's last word happily floating in her head, the tiger cub pushed open the doors and slipped outside into the sunshine to find Shifu; mulling together a short sentence about her time at the garden to explain to Shifu and thinking happily about the next encounter with the big Snow Leopard whom she shyly decided to look at as her new 'buddy'…_

* * *

Tigress jumped awake, lying curled up in a ball on the floor of her room where she had slid down only hours earlier.

It was still dark outside; the occasional hoots from the night owls were heard and surprisingly no sound was coming from the room across from hers – the Panda must still be out cold.

Last night, she nearly tore of the roots of her fur out to his tremendously loud snore in frustration, ignoring the dangerously high temptation to march across there do to him what she did to the clubs in the training room yesterday.

The training room …

 _"You are not to go inside this room, do you understand Tigress?"_ She could still hear Shifu's order to her not to enter that room, despite it having been twenty years ago now.

 _"Yes Master Shifu."_

She had understood. She had known not to go there. She knew the trouble she would get into if she did go in there …

But she did.

She violated Shifu's orders and entered that room … and in doing created a bond between her and a creature that she'd give almost anything in the world to undo. For although it had been twenty years, although Tigress hated it savagely, although she ignored it every day behind a cold facade with an effort that was almost impossible – it still tugged away at her damaged heart to this day.

Uncoiling herself from her ball on the floor, the tiger heaved onto her hind paws – hugged her front paws around her cold body and dragged herself slowly over to her bed and resumed her tight ball of solitude under the blanket. Closing her eyes again she tried with feeble attempts to relax her stiff, frozen body and allow much needed sleep to finally come to her.

 _'Little girl…'_ the voice inside her head sang; mercilessly refusing to give up the torture.

* * *

 **A/N: I also edited this chapter as well as the first one to include the italics for the memory parts as I started doing from chapter 3 onward. Also while I'm here I suppose I should add that yes I have given Tai Lung a slightly more tender-ish side compared to other fics of him before he went haywire and I assure you that there is a main reason for that that is significant to my story and will become clear as it progresses :) But don't worry, I have tried my best to keep him to character in the present time as well as Tigress also.**


	3. Blame

**A/N: Sorry for the delay, this chapter took way longer to come together than what I thought. Partly because of life and partly because I got a little stuck with the ending, but it came together alright in the end, I think. Enjoy :)**

* * *

Darkness. As far as the eye could see. Though the majority of that reason was because the eye was shut, both of them actually – they had been shut for nearly two weeks straight. Not saying that if they were open then it would be any lighter; the whole place he resided in was dark - dark, lonely, empty aside from the guards, (and even when they paid any attention to him it was never lightly or under good circumstances) so his eyes stayed shut.

He knelt on the cold, stone platform that had been his only place – and only position – for years. Twenty to be precise. And Lord almighty those years had been long. Long, torturous, inhumanely horrific. His muscular body – which only held its impressive bulky status due to the twenty years prior to his capture that he had spent at the jade palace hell-bent over the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu and learning them in the fraction of the time he had spent reading them individually, well most of them anyway – was weighed down by a tortoise shell-like device, clamping tightly around him, making breathing slightly difficult – He hadn't been able to take a proper deep breath since he'd been brought here twenty years ago. He wasn't sure how he'd managed to keep count of how many years he'd stayed, rotting away inside this shell of solitary confinement – possibly because every time the New Year came around, the number of guards decreased dramatically for a week or so leaving only selected few around to scale the levels and keep close watch on their sole prisoner – and he had managed to keep a mindful count of how many times that happened.

But his eyes were the only thing that was closed, shut down. The rest of his body – his chained, manacled, shelled up body was on high alert despite the restraints. He was deathly still, no muscle moving, no nerve twitching, no breath sounding – he was breathing, but after twenty years of practice, he could keep it as silent as the dead – that and the earlier fact that he physically couldn't breathe very deep thanks to his tedious restraint.

Tai Lung was waiting … listening … hungering …

What he was waiting for – and had been waiting for since day one here – was his chance, his chance for freedom, his chance to escape, the day when one foolish guard would make a slip up on their rounds to ensure his bounds were secure and accidently set one loose.

What he was listening for was up for debate, a click of restraints coming loose? A gasp from the guards when he decided to move? (He slightly enjoyed and took pleasure in the fact that even the slightest twitch from him twenty years on in the prison still made them flinch, despite being heavily manacled down) or just listening for the annoying low rumble of the warden, Commander Vachir? Vachir's voice always used to make the Snow Leopard flinch in the early days of his imprisonment, purely because he knew that when he heard that voice, he knew he was in for one hell of a time.

And what he was hungering for … the answer was obvious. He'd been hungering for it the day he'd been denied that damn scroll, the one thing that had been drilled into his head that he was destined for; the only thing that Master Shifu – his own father – had told him was his to claim after he had mastered the Thousand Scrolls. To this day he hungered … for **revenge**.

He blamed three major people for his outcome, for the place he was now to live for possibly the rest of his life in. He blamed Shifu. Shifu was the one who screwed up, made him believe that without the Dragon Scroll, without the title of the Dragon Warrior, he was nothing; nothing but a feeble, weak orphan who knew how to kick a punching bag rather well and had learned a few Scrolls on Kung Fu (understatement of the millennium, but he couldn't help what he felt.) He blamed Oogway. The tortoise, who not only denied him the Dragon Scroll for the stupid reason that 'he saw darkness in his heart', but also turned Shifu on him, the very day he was supposed to be granted the Scroll. Shifu didn't stand up for him, didn't vouch for him, didn't do anything, just sighed and turned away to follow Oogway; which made Tai Lung blame the Red Panda even more. Shifu did _nothing_. Oogway's nerve attack that he had used on him at last second after he had rampaged the Valley, defeated Shifu and tried to forcefully take the Scroll was also a pretty vital reason he was in here – Tai Lung should've known something like that would happen, though truthfully, he wasn't aware the tortoise could actually move that fast and after Shifu was taken out, he didn't think he had anyone left in his way. Big Mistake on his behalf.

As for the third person he blamed …

The last ten or so of the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu had been harder than the rest to learn, not because of their difficulty level, or the length of them as some of the last ones held very small print and when rolled out were almost the entire length of him … it was because he had been frequently distracted coming into the last few weeks of learning the few Scrolls that were left – Distracted by a pair of enormous golden eyes very similar to that of his own, accompanying a very small body and an even smaller, softer voice.

Tigress …

Shifu had always taught him to never show emotion, never cry, never feel, when fighting. He always said that it distracted one's mind from the sole purpose, from the goal. Tai Lung had taken that to heart through all of his years of training and learning the Scrolls … until that day when that little girl had snuck into the training room to watch him and in doing so had wriggled her little form under his rosette studded pelt.

Part of him had wanted to tell her to leave when he had discovered her or scare her off with a growl. But in the split second after he had turned to see her staring at him from behind that pillar, before her eyes widened and filled to the brim with fear, he had seen admiration and awe in them. She had truly been intrigued to watch him batter down the Wooden Warriors. He didn't know the reason why (or rather he did but he would never admit it to himself or anyone else in a million years - It was the one thing he'd always wanted to see in Shifu's eyes). But it was because of that that he found he couldn't bring himself to hurt her or scare her – more. And, whether he had wanted it to or not, his guard had come down around that young feline, he played with her, made her laugh, treated her as if she were his little friend, and by and by she had become just that – his little friend … his 'little girl' … it had to have been one of the worst mistakes he could possibly have made.

As much as Tai Lung knew he should hate the tiger cub for what happened to him and what was denied him, as it was **her** fault he turned into a carefree kitten whenever she was around, he couldn't do it. He couldn't hate her for everything … for anything … and he **hated** that.

Tai Lung swallowed a growl that had started tickling his throat at the memories of that day he met her. He had ignored Shifu's advice, just for her and it was because of that, because he had basically turned into a mushy, playful mess around her, that he showed emotion … that, among the others, was why he had been denied that significant, famous Scroll.

The sound of rattling chains brought the Snow Leopard thudding back to the present day – or night, he was no longer sure which it was now; he lost that train of thought years ago. Eyes still firmly shut, he heard the draw bridge coming down – creating the sole pathway between his very homey platform and the wooden elevator, and accompanying the drawbridge descending was a very familiar, very unwanted, drawling, evil laugh. _Oh yippee, my favourite visitor …_

"Behold … Tai … Lung."

 _Oh for fucks sake, he simply has to go with the dramatic take doesn't he?_ Truthfully Tai Lung wasn't overly surprised. Vachir was always one for over exaggerating even the slightest of events, he just took even more immense pleasure in over exaggerating the Snow Leopard, mixed with a tinge of sarcasm with 'how the mighty have fallen' as Vachir would often sneer at him . _Ugh._

He heard a new voice pipe up after a moment, a scared, shaky voice. One of which belonged to somebody who didn't want to be there – or that close to him – at all. "Um … I'm just gonna wait right here"

If it had been any other sentence, Tai Lung would have had to swallow a low, humourless chuckle at how nerve wrecked that voice was; the Snow Leopard would've been smug at the fact that he still intimidated anyone outside the prison who dared to come for a visit (Although he suspected this guest wasn't here of his own free will, Vachir would've forced him to come down here … he sounded absolutely petrified) despite not being able to physically do anything. Instead, however, it wasn't a chuckle he had to swallow down, it wasn't even a snigger… it was more of a gasp. Whether it was out of surprise or shock – maybe a bit of both – didn't really matter. What mattered was why he'd had to swallow a gasp in the first place.

I'm just gonna wait right here…

Those words … that sentence … it stirred something in his head, in his memory. He'd heard it before, in the same type of manner, nervous, twitchy kind of voice. _I'm just gonna wait right here…_ It started off vague, a blur, an endless ripple, like a pebble disturbing a still puddle, the voice wavered a little and went up an octave. _I'm just gonna wait right here…_ the voice in his head got a little higher still, a little more nervous … _I'm just gonna wait right here…_ it got smaller and a little more squeakier; like that of a little child … a little girl.

Like that of Tigress … and within seconds, it all came flooding back …

* * *

 _"I'm just gonna wait right here…"_

 _"It's okay little girl, it won't burn you unless you're actually on the field"_

 _It had been a week, give or take, since he had discovered the little tiger cub hiding behind the pillar and had introduced her to the Wooden Warriors and since then she had scampered back once every day to see him, and he found himself oddly content when she showed up. He found himself waiting for her to appear as he trained; every ten minutes or so he would glance up at the pillar to see if she was there watching him. The stone pillar in which he had discovered her had now become her go to, the place she always went when she snuck in each day to watch and wait for him to look up at see her, and he couldn't help but feel his heart lift and a broad smirk smear itself across his muzzle every time he looked up to find those huge orange eyes that, though he did find them rather bright and full of energy, he did secretly think were just the tiniest bit too big for her tiny figure, gazing back at him before laughing and coaxing her out and over him._

 _Today however she didn't move from behind the pillar. She was watching him and he knew she was there, he'd tried to beckon her over twice, but she wasn't budging. Her eyes bulged with curiosity and admiration as always, but laced among it as well was concern, worry and a splash of fear. He supposed he knew why; he wasn't working on the Wooden Warriors today (partly because he may or may not have broken the last one the day before, Lord knew what Master Shifu was going to say when he found out about that later on). He was on the Field of Fiery Death._

 _He hadn't worked on this one in a while, mainly because it had been under repair due to the last time he'd used it … he had jumped up and flipped spectacularly to avoid the flames and had landed with too much of a force; punching down so hard, he'd accidentally made one massive hole right in the middle of the Field … safe to say it had been out of order for at least a month._

 _He could see out of the corner of his eye as he darted, jumped and flipped through the Field that Tigress was watching him, jumping up herself with fright every time the flames roared up high … and taking the Snow Leopard up with it. He chuckled at that, unable to deny that it was, well, cute in a way (He wasn't about to say that out loud though.)_

 _"You wanna have a go Tigress?" He asked her a little too innocently once he'd backed off the field for a short break._

 _He shouldn't have laughed really; he didn't exactly like seeing fear fully overtake the tiger cub, but he hadn't been able to resist it and he wasn't disappointed with the result. Her eyes were almost as large as her head with how much they had expanded and her jaw was simply hanging with utter shock, presumably at the fact he had actually dared to ask her that question._

 _"No … no … I don't … I mean, I can't …" Tai Lung could only laugh harder at her stuttering. He knew it was mean and he should really stop and get a hold of himself but he couldn't help it, it had been too much to resist. He was aware his facial expression must look like that of a retarded seal. At last he managed to straighten himself up, taking a deep breath to calm the breathing down._

 _"I'm just kidding little girl, didn't really mean to frighten ya" He stifled a fresh onslaught of laughter bursting to come out "My word, you should've seen ya face though"._

 _He watched her face turn from one of fear to one of relief and annoyance "Tai Lung!" She wailed, finally moving herself out from behind the pillar and crawling slowly over to him "That wasn't funny!"_

 _"Sorry" Tai Lung said, trying to sound as apologetic as what he could, and fearing he was failing dismally, his voice threatening to break with laughter again at the image of her horrified face, still very fresh in his mind. "Only messing round with ya. How 'bout you just stay here for a while, watch me instead. I'll show you a few of my tricks on the field." Half of that was sarcasm (since he knew she wasn't going anywhere near the field) the other half was genuine; he found himself actually wanting to show her what he could do on the field._

 _He watched Tigress' face morph through a series of emotions: nervousness, admiration, annoyance, awe, worry before settling into acceptance, although it did seem a little reluctant though he wasn't exactly sure why. Giving a small nod, she turned and scurried back to the protection of the pillar, putting herself well out of harms reach (Tai Lung gave up on trying to tell her that unless she was on the field, there was no way she could have gotten burned)._

 _"Er, well, watch and learn, little girl" He said with his signature smirk before back flipping flawlessly off the side and head first back into the Fiery Field of Death …_

* * *

"Hey! Tough Guy!"

Vachir's loud, smug, arrogant voice sent the Snow Leopard thumping back to the concrete platform from the memory he had been unable to avoid, he knelt as still as ever, eyes still shut, arms stretched out at the side, wrists manacled in chains that locked around two heavy rocks on either side of the platform, weighing him down – though after twenty years he was use to that and would still be strong enough to pull both rocks up, if it weren't for the damn turtle shell stopping him from straightening up. He heard Vachir drawl on, most likely to try and wind him up as the warden walked lazily around his restrained form.

"Did ya hear? Oogway's finally gonna give someone the Dragon Scroll and it is not gonna be you!"

The Snow Leopard now half wished he was still back in that memory … at least that would distract him from what was being said. Was the rhino actually being serious? Had someone else truly been given the Dragon Scroll? Tai Lung subtly bit his tongue to keep himself from growling, Vachir knew exactly how to wind him up and set him off. Thank twenty years of practice to drown out the emotion or never act on it if the former was not possible.

The scared scrawny voice he'd heard earlier, the one who said that nostalgic sentence that sent him on the blast from the past, piped up again sounding more frantic than frightened "What are you doing?! Don't get him mad!"

 _Wise thinking, whoever you are_. Tai Lung didn't know who it was, he could only guess it was some messenger or just a friend of Vachir's, but judging by the timid, scared voice and knowing Vachir, he strongly believed it to be the former, but he kept his head down and his eyes shut, if anything to keep himself as much to the mercy of the Warden as possible (He had learned over time that staying quiet instead of back chatting was the easiest way out of the regular torture, add that to the Snow Leopard's stubbornness, which over twenty years had refused to descend even the slightest nudge, keeping quiet and still was relatively easy).

"What's he gonna go about it? I've got him completely immobilized."

 _Thank your fucking lucky stars that that is the case you stuck up bastard!_

 **Crunch!**

A jolt of pain bombarded the Snow Leopard's tail as Vachir's heavy foot came stomping down hard on it; now it was just pure stubbornness that Tai Lung kept on as if nothing had happened, as if he wasn't biting his tongue so hard he could draw blood, as if he were a statue; stiff, still, unmoving. He heard the other unknown visitor give out another strangled yelp of fright, as if they were just waiting for him to try and lash out at them or Vachir; that gave him the tiniest amount of pleasure under the pain. Vachir meanwhile had taken the path of gloating, and Tai Lung knew he was enjoying every second of it – anyone could decipher it through his cold, evil laugh.

"Aw did I step on the widdy kiddy's tail? Aw" Vachir's voice came incredibly close to Tai Lung's ear and by the gods, was the rhino pushing it. The Snow Leopard was now secretly fighting every cell in his body not to growl and unleash his fangs on the warden, with the intent to at least off the commander's vile tongue that he used far too much for his own good. All those feelings disappeared in the blink of an eye however with the next thing that Vachir's surprise guest blurted out.

"I'm good, I've seen enough…"

All words after that were drowned out by the memory that came cascading back to the Snow Leopard's mind as yet another sentence spoken by the same person in the same manner brought him back to that day…

* * *

 _"I'm good, I've seen enough!"_

 _Tai Lung flung his body off of the field, watching the flames die down to nothing, panting just a little and slightly deeply might he add from all the fast and furious darts, jumps, flips, turns and even the scattered kicks to avoid the flames. He could avoid them effortlessly now, had been able to do so for nearly six years, but it was sightly satisfying to put a little show on for his audience of one and show off his skill from time to time that he personally thought was reasonably impressive; Not that Shifu or Oogway had ever said that, but since it was a certainty now that he was to be granted the Dragon Scroll, he hoped they were both thinking it inwardly._

 _He turned and gave Tigress an uncontained boastful grin as she slowly emerged again from behind her protective pillar and half waddled over to him. "You're going to burn yourself Tai." She said worriedly._

 _He couldn't help laughing at her concern "You sound like you care for me little girl."_

 _"Well ye –" The small feline stopped abruptly, making Tai Lung raise an eyebrow in surprise, it had sounded very much like she was about to agree with what he had just said._

 _"Yes Tigress?"_

 _"Well …" the tiger cub started again "I mean, that was amazing, don't get me wrong, but ... I don't want to see you hurt. Some of those flips looked like close calls … it would take you out of the training room because you would have to get better … and I …" She hesitated before continuing on in a tiny voice "… and I wouldn't be able to see you."_

 _The grin slowly dissolved from Tai Lung's muzzle as he realized the full extent of what the little cub had been worried about. Not just because of injury or because_ she _may have gotten hurt but because spending time with him was something she feared she would lose if_ he _got hurt. It was then that he realized that as much as he had found himself happy to see her, she was also happy to see him. She enjoyed his company as much as he had come to enjoy hers._

 _He did of course know that even the nastiest of injuries couldn't keep him from training for long. If he didn't get back to it on his own, then Master Shifu would get him back to it. Shattered bones hadn't stopped him in the past, burns would be nothing. He wasn't about to tell Tigress all that though. "Don't you worry little girl" He said with a grin "I won't hurt myself, heck, I've been doing this for years, I know what I'm doing" He thumped a paw hard on his chest with a grin, making Tigress flinch, though it was out of abruptness at the sudden sound. "I've had at least a decade of practice on all of this equipment; injuries are more or less a thing of the past for me. There's nothing that can take me down now."_

 _A slow grin had formed across Tigress' muzzle as she laughed and nodded at the Snow Leopard as he proceeded to do something he hadn't done before and raise his hand to give her a fist bump, which she returned with a grin - after he told her what a fist bump was ("Everyone was too scared to come near me at the orphanage, let alone touch me")._

* * *

The end of the memory faded away, leaving the Snow Leopard more frustrated and angrier than ever, both at the memory and at Tigress. What the hell had been wrong with him back then? That little brat had turned him into the purring pussycat whenever she had been around and while it wasn't the only reason; it was still a major one as to why he had been denied that Scroll, why he'd had to do what he did, why he'd ended up in here, left to rot for two decades, while it was possible that Tigress herself had been the one to get gifted with the Dragon Scroll. It had been enough years that she would be old enough … in her twenties now … damn, and here he believed she was still a cub. Of course not.

It had probably been a part of her little scheme as a cub though, to smitten him with her cute little paws and her enormous eyes, turn him soft so that when Shifu and Oogway discovered his forbidden change and his deceiving of Shifu's advice and therefore denied him the scroll thanks to his leaked emotions, then she could step up and fight – with the moves **he** had taught her – and show the two Kung Fu masters it was she who was the true one worthy of the Scroll.

 _"… There's nothing that can take me down now."_

He'd been wrong there … it killed him to admit it but he'd been wrong … something could take him down … would take him down … did take him down … **her.**

 **Now** he hated her.

Now he could place a third of the blame on her and not feel bad for doing so. Now he could say it was her fault just as much as it was Shifu's and Oogways. Now he could hate her … couldn't he?

A ghost of a breeze brushed his nose as something small and light floated down past it, like a feather or a leaf. It was then that he finally opened his eyes; their angry, fiery, golden glow skewering the back of the drawbridge as it was lifted back up, leaving his platform of stone hard concrete surrounded by a black abyss, the bottom seen by no one and the length of the drop unknown; those who had dared to jump and find out were never to be seen again.

He lowered his glare to the floor and discovered the cause of the barely felt breeze had indeed been a feather – Tai Lung guessed it was from the mystery guest, whom, after finally opening his eyes had turned out to be a messenger goose from none other than the Jade Palace itself, sent most likely from Shifu (He recognized the uniform).

Using his bruised but thankfully – and surprisingly – unbroken tail, the Snow Leopard curled it around the fragile feather and, with shockingly utmost patience, lifted his tail up to the lock on his tortoise shell restraint and carefully began fitting the delicate object into place in the lock. Using only his tail, he moved the feather left … right … then left again. It wasn't exactly easy, but what other choice did he have? Patience was key over the years in this place.

Click … _Well that's a start_ ... clack _... Almost have it_ … clink … _one more ..._

His ears pricked up at every sound of his tedious restraint unlocking until finally, with one last _clink_ … the device holding him loosened. The acupuncture needles that had kept him in place for two decades slowly descended from the shell letting out a fizzing sound as they did so, letting the Snow Leopard at last take a delicious deep breath of air, after twenty years of waiting.

 _Finally!_

Tai Lung had waited … listened … hungered …

He'd waited for his chance to escape: the feather. He listened for the clicking of the locks coming undone: click, clack, clink … now it was what he hungered … that was all that was left …

Revenge.

As he cracked his knuckles and arched his back, breaking the shell as if it were a Wooden Warrior that he was smashing up back in the training hall. For a split second he fell to his knees in utter relief that that vile, fucker of a restraint was finally gone; the cold air bristling over his back fur was one hell of a blessing for him at this point. _Think about this later, you're not done yet!_ He found his way to his feet angrily, making the two heavy rocks grind against either side of the platform as he brought them up with his manacled wrists like they were nothing more than small stones on the beach, ignoring the cries of alarm from both the guards and the bells sounding throughout the prison. Tai Lung threw his head back and for the first time in twenty years, let out one frightening roar; pouring his anger, spite and above all, his lust for vengeance into the nightmare haunting sound that left his throat.

He was going to escape ... now … and when he did, when he returned to the Valley of Peace, to the Jade Palace … He was going to get that Scroll … and after that, they were all going to pay. Oogway. Shifu…

… And Tigress.

* * *

 **A/N: Okay, I have edited both this chapter and the last one just a little. The more I read them, the more I wasn't too happy with just how OOC I made Tai to begin with. So I've tweaked it up a little to put him more into character, give him a little bit more sass and less pussycat (though of course he's still going to think as such in the present time, I couldn't change that). Here's hoping I succeeded :)**


	4. Slipping

**A/N: I realized that when I re-uploaded the first chapter to fix a mistake that just kept bothering me, I had forgotten about the disclaimer part. (whoops) so while I've gone back and put it back up I'll also put it here as well. Don't own the characters or the movie; all rights go to Dreamworks, simply own some parts of the plot and my OC's. Anyway, on with the tale ...**

* * *

It had been one hell of a morning so far at the Jade Palace. Tigress had barely had three hours of proper sleep the night before, partly because she couldn't get comfortable in bed, and also partly because that damn Panda had risen out of his stone cold slumber and had started to snore again, but for the most part it had been that dream. That dream, among others that were just as bad, that simply refused to give her any sort of remorse, mercy or even just give her a moments rest from her haunting past.

Despite rising, like every other day, at the strike of the early morning gong as alert as ever along with the rest of the Five, Tigress was exhausted; on top of the lack of sleep and unwanted dreams there was Master Shifu to deal with as well. The red panda was as mad as a hippo with a hernia at Po and his temper just kept getting worse as every attempt to get rid of him kept backfiring miserably – if anything it just gave the Panda all the more motivation to stay … Something that Tigress simply couldn't make sense out of, no matter how hard she had tried to.

But it wasn't just the panda that wore the extent of Shifu's rage. The Furious Five - or most of them at least - wore it nearly as much if not more. Training was far from uncommon for the Five; truth be told they were surprised if it _wasn't_ part of the day's routine. If ever there was a day that they neglected to lay eyes or step foot in the Training Hall (when they weren't in some far off town battling) then it would be the day they each passed on to the next world – and even then they'd probably still find a way to return to it.

This morning however was almost edging on, well, _insane_. The Master of the Furious Five was adamant on proving to Oogway that he had chosen the wrong person as the Dragon Warrior and Tigress agreed with him … and the rest of the Five were suffering for it. It wasn't even midday yet and most if not all the Five were almost ready to collapse right in the middle of the devices in the Training Hall – which would not have been the best idea.

Shifu hadn't been there for the entire time that morning; Tigress had noticed that within an hour of setting them all to train, he had slipped out the door unbeknownst to the rest of the Five to undoubtedly give the Panda just as much of an ass whooping as he had them, but she had kept her mouth shut out of worry that her comrades all would stop after realizing he was gone, and it wasn't just because of Shifu's wrath that she harshly urged them to keep going after one by one they noticed he was absent; it also provided a brilliant distraction for her from her troubling thoughts regarding her past with a certain Snow Leopard.

As midday approached however, they had slowly dropped like flies to the side of the Training Hall, unable to obey Tigress' commands to keep on any longer; they had all skipped breakfast this morning thanks to Shifu pushing them straight to work, meaning they had been all been hard-core training since they had greeted him in their usual fashion at the first rays of the sunrise.

Tigress was still the last to fall; despite her exhaustion, she hardly felt it in her upper limbs as she delivered the blows on the training devices thanks to her twenty years of punching the ironwood trees that grew outside the palace as another training mechanism, though she was the only one that used that method … and she used it because of someone else who use to do it before her. _No … stop, don't go there. Focus!_

Deciding that fighting the Seven … Three … Swinging Clubs of Instant Oblivion probably wasn't the best idea, Tigress still cut out plenty of work for herself nevertheless as she broke three of the Wooden Warriors (much to Mantis' annoyance) and had a very close match with Crane on the Jade Tortoise of Wisdom – stopping when she almost snapped both his wing and his leg. Plus she accidentally almost burnt Viper to a crispy stick after a flip on the Fiery Field of Death caught the snake in the middle with her foot and flung her scaly body off course – the serpent missed a wall of flames by a hairs breadth, and the Seven-Talon Rings that Monkey specialized in, well, he definitely got a run for his money after Tigress challenged him to a race through the 'Spiky Donuts' as she overheard the Panda call them on the first day he had seen them.

"Tigress, enough, you're going to destroy the whole hall!"

"Monkey's right. Keep up with this and we won't have anything left to train on!"

"Are you sure that's a bad thing at the moment Crane?"

Tigress half agreed with Mantis' last comment for the sake of the others but, regardless, Monkey and Crane were correct; if she wasn't careful she was going to break the whole arena – it didn't help that the majority of the reason for this was because as the rest of the Five continued to drop, the less distraction she had, so putting everything she had into the devices was her only escape route. Flipping off one of the Rings, she joined the rest of her panting comrades, dropping down between Crane and Viper, feeling the steady drum beat of her heart as it descended slowly from the adrenaline. There was a long episode of nothing but racing heartbeats and hard breathing for a time.

"That … was ridiculous" Mantis spoke up, half aiming it at Tigress but she had a hunch that he was mainly centring it towards Shifu.

"Despicable" Monkey agreed.

"It's not our fault Oogway didn't … choose one of us" Viper said, still trying to get her breathing back to normal.

"Or maybe it is"

"Tigress, you know it's n–"

"What if it is?" Tigress looked around at the tired faces of her comrades "What if it is our fault? What if we haven't trained enough, or didn't learn fast enough? You heard what Shifu said the other day, and almost every other day we've trained; we disappoint him, there was always something we were missing, something we weren't doing, or weren't doing well enough. He's never praised us for anything, there was always something wrong."

She closed her eyes and took a breath. She knew where that little rant had stemmed from, and it had very little to do with the Dragon Warrior or the Scroll or anything to do with the Five, it was yet another secret that resided on a personal level between her and Shifu … _not something you need to recall right now, they don't need to know_ **.** Lowering her voice to an irritated growl she repeated her question "So what if it actually is our fault?"

The group was silent for a time. Tigress looked at them and could see that no one could actually think up a reasonable answer to give their leader as she did have a valid point and everything she said hadn't been a lie. At last it was Crane that broke the silence with a quiet voice.

"Truthfully, I've never really heard him praise anyone. I mean, it's not just us he's harsh on, it's everyone" The Avian looked down "I suppose I've never heard him talk low of Oogway before … but I haven't exactly heard anything spoken highly of him from Shifu either … but we all know how much he respects Oogway even though he doesn't show it … that itself is one reason why I don't think it's our fault."

"I have to agree with Crane there" Mantis said slowly.

"Me too" Monkey chipped in.

Viper wrapped her tail gently around Tigress' paw "you shouldn't think like that Tigress, and Crane is absolutely right, Shifu is harsh on everyone, has been for years apparently. In fact the only stories … or story, rather … that I've heard of Shifu praising anyone was –"

"Okay, okay I get it." Tigress said sharply, cutting off Viper as quickly as she could from saying his name … not quick enough unfortunately as the wheels in her head started turning again in the one direction she silently pleaded it wouldn't go and if it hadn't been for the protest of the rest of the Five and her stubborn vow to keep her story a secret – that included raising any suspicions – she would have thrown herself back onto the training course to keep her thoughts from wondering astray to forbidden places.

"Man I'm hungry!"

On any other day Tigress would chastise Mantis about the fact that he was nearly always hungry, but she let him off the hook today, knowing that due to skipping breakfast, none of them had had anything to eat today at all.

The tiger sighed heavily "I'm going to get a drink" She said "I'll bring some fruit back for you guys, then we continue on outside … the hall won't stand much longer if we stay in here." She could feel a distinct disapproving throb that her hind leg muscles were giving her at the thought of that last part but she ignored it, getting to her feet and parting towards the doors, feeling all four pairs of eyes on her as she did so. Waiting on people like a servant wasn't exactly something she did and everyone in the Jade Palace knew it, but if it meant a trip to the kitchen that gave her a small moment to herself then it was a risk she was going to have to take and pray no one thought too suspiciously of it. _No rising suspicions huh? Stupid!_

Exiting the great hall she smacked a to her forehead and rubbed it down over her muzzle and started off towards the kitchen, forcing her mind to think only of the task at hand; it wasn't really much of a task, but if it meant her mind stayed safe in shallow waters then she all too willingly complied.

"Tigress, wait up!"

Tigress stifled a groan as Viper slithered up beside her. She had almost succeeded, almost got away with only her own company. Of course, trust Viper if anyone to follow her; out of all of the Five, Viper was the one she was the closest to, being the only other female in the group – in the Jade Palace – and the green tree viper also had a keen eyesight for anything that seemed out of place or out of the norm … that was what worried Tigress.

"What is it Viper?" Tigress asked, trying to keep her tone as conversationally as possible, though whether she was succeeding or not was unknown, to her at least.

Viper offered a small smile as she glided easily with Tigress' faster than usual pace "I thought you might appreciate the company."

A number of replies tangled themselves through Tigress' brain, the majority of them quite negative and she was aware that Viper didn't deserve any of them; she was after all, always just trying to help – being as caring as Tigress was stubborn and Shifu was harsh. Tigress found she didn't have the heart to tell Viper she had left specifically to be alone so with a calm, collective voice (At least she hoped that's what it sounded like) She answered "If you feel as if you must, then by all means but I wasn't going to be long."

"I know" Viper said quietly "But I wanted to talk to you anyway."

Tigress raised an eyebrow down at the serpent "What about?"

Viper looked at her with love and kindness in her eyes but as Tigress looked back at her, she also had a touch of concern in her shiny blue orbs "Are you alright?"

Just like Tigress wasn't one for emotions, she also wasn't one for these types of conversations. One of the most compelling reasons was the exact same as why showing emotion was something she neglected with a passion: Shifu (That did make it rather obvious on how Tigress had come to attain these traits though, like father like daughter right there). She eyed Viper with a look that she mightily struggled not to turn into a glare. "I'm fine, perfectly fine."

"Are you sure?" The tone and the look that Viper gave Tigress was enough to know that she was far from convinced "You've seemed a little off since last night, when you were telling the story of Tai Lung, part of you almost looked … well … upset. And now this morning … I'm well aware of your determination to train, Tigress, believe me I've known you long to enough to figure it out. But not like this. Not this … dangerously… forcing us to continue even though Shifu's not there and we **need** to stop plus nearly turning me into ash, Crane into twigs and the Training Hall into rubble… and now you're willingly playing the waitress for us by getting food … Tigress, I know something is up."

Tigress fought the urge to shake her head as though to rattle it to find an excuse for her strange behaviour. She really should have known Viper would pick up on her unnatural actions and expressions; it was almost like a quirky little gift she possessed.

"Shifu could have returned at any moment Viper, I was not prepared to take even more wrath from him if he returned to see us slacking. You and I both know that we don't think that fat panda is the Dragon Warrior any more than what Shifu does so the least we can do is help him prove to Oogway that choosing the Panda was truly a mistake, though I am sorry about what nearly happened to you and Crane, it wasn't intentional on my part, as for the fruit; I know it's rare of me but I'm not heartless and you know none of us will last if we continue on empty stomachs; at least I didn't offer to prepare a feast. And with last night … Tai Lung's story affects everyone and anyone who hears it or knows about it; you know that."

Viper looked thoughtful as they continued up to kitchen "Actually, speaking of that, there was something I was meaning to ask you last night about it."

"Mm?"

"How do you know Oogway used the nerve attack on Tai Lung?" _Shit!_

Tigress stopped in her tracks, turning wide eyed to her friend "What?"

Viper continued, unaware (thankfully) of her leader's panic-stricken face, due to still being deep in thought over last night's surprising new piece of informaltion, "I mean, yes I know it was Oogway who stopped him when Shifu couldn't, but Shifu's never said how Oogway actually defeated him, it was the one thing about the story he never mentioned, so how did you know about that?"

Now Tigress did shake her head; a smidge of that reason being because it was not the only thing by a long shot that Shifu had neglected to mention to the rest of the Five about Tai Lung's past (something she was more than grateful for) but the rest of the reason was her own stupidity. The leader of the Furious Five bit her tongue hard to stop herself cursing out loud that she had let that slip – after all hadn't she tried to take extra care not to stray into the story that remained locked up? She hoped like nothing else that it was just Viper who had caught on to that and hoped even more that she hadn't said anything to the rest of the Five about it – that would, one way or another, spark up a conversation that the tiger did not plan to discuss with them – with anyone – ever.

It wasn't that she didn't trust them, she did. By the Gods, she did. The battles they had fought together over the years, the bond she had with them as a group and as individuals, their unwavering loyalty and companionship towards each other plus their genuine close friendship was more than enough for Tigress to say, without hesitation that she trusted each of them with her life. It also wasn't that she thought they wouldn't understand (even though, to some degree, she supposed it was a slight contributing factor that they probably wouldn't – She wasn't entirely sure _she_ fully understood some parts of it.)

It was because of the – for a better word – weight, that it contained. The heavy, torturous weight that had been on her shoulders for twenty years. A weight that mentally made her buckle inside, that hurt her, knotted her up, stretched her out then hung and left her to dry while still refusing to leave its perch on her back – it was something that she hid fiercely behind her signature ill-tempered façade and something that, out of her ever-present stubbornness and – though rarely shown – love for her fellow masters and friends, she refused to share.

Realizing by catching Viper's gaze at her that she was now edging on suspicious for taking too long to reply, she ended up saying the first thing that came to her head.

"Um … It was guess. You know I read up on the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu despite the fact I haven't yet completed them all myself and we all know what Oogway is capable of, it just seemed to be the most logical action he would have taken to bring him down. And Shifu did mention Oogway's particularly skilful with the nerve attack."

Truthfully Tigress wasn't sure if she could've said a more lame excuse than the complete and utter mumbo jumbo that she had just half snapped out very quickly. However, much to the tiger's surprise, Viper seemed to have bought what she'd just said with possibly a slight hint of hesitation before responding with a light shrug (a small cock of her head was her way of shrugging – being a snake and all). _Huh, she's not as observant as what I thought. Not a bad thing right now though, I suppose._

"I suppose so … still it does seem a little farfetched … you know, to just guess, especially coming from you, as you hardly ever say anything unless you know it to be true." Okay, maybe Viper hadn't fully bought it; not saying that Tigress really blamed her – that excuse had been quite low on the margin and was probably going to be something that would make her cringe in the future whenever she thought back to it in the time to come. Sensing that Viper was edging on questioning her further about her unexpected add-on to the well known story last night, Tigress spoke up, hoping she didn't sound too snappy "yes well, emphasis on the 'hardly ever'. Now drop it and let's just do what we came here to do."

They had been standing in the entrance way to the kitchen for more than a few moments now; Tigress had barely registered they were there due to Viper's small confrontation with her and all the while had been secretly fighting her head not to delve into memories that were sure to make her unintentionally give the game way because of it. Finding a gap in the wall however, Tigress all too happily pounced through it; killing the edgy conversation that threatened to spill her secrets and starting up a much lighter, easier to handle discussion as she leapt forward towards a bowl of fresh ripened fruit sitting in a bowl on the bench.

"Come on" she said, after downing a cup of water and picking up the bowl "The sooner we get back to it the better."

Viper hesitated, her expression thoughtful "Do you think we should bring back some water for the rest of them as well? I don't know about you but I think the others would appreciate it … and since we're here and all…"

Tigress swallowed down her reply of irritation to Viper. On one paw, it would look most suspicious if she came back with not only food but also beverages for the rest of them, and getting back to training on the court was something she knew would be better done sooner rather than later (But then again the water was Viper's idea and if Viper carried them then it wouldn't be too much of a problem, and much less suspicious) On the other paw, water would help in reviving the rest of them for the afternoons work, and the longer they all kept on their feet, the more distraction Tigress had away from history.

"Fine" She said, setting the bowl down and turning towards one of the many cupboards "but 'we' means 'you' … start filling the cups, I'll find a tray."

* * *

No less than twenty minutes later, the five Masters of Kung Fu were out on the court with somewhat renewed strength and muscles relieved a little of the aching, despite the break not being as long as what they had hoped for. Viper was right, the water had been appreciated by everyone, and the fruit had done their small wonders in filling a small part of their stomachs … enough to grudgingly start back up training, much to Tigress' relief for more than one reason.

Viper and Crane isolated themselves almost immediately from the others; lost in a steady match against one another. Tigress couldn't help but sense that there might have been more than one reason for them choosing each other to fight but she didn't comment, leaving them be. Turning to see that Monkey and Mantis had both chosen to amuse themselves in individual combat with the outside training devices, (Monkey respectively chose to train with the bamboo staff he personally possessed) she realized that she too was going to have to train in the company of either herself or the outdoor devices.

That hadn't been part of her plan; to train solo. But then she shouldn't be too surprised, she understood that the rest of the Five may be a little wary of her and slightly reluctant to verse her in combat because of what she almost did to Crane and Viper and she knew on top of that, Monkey and Mantis were still partly annoyed that she bested the former in his section and destroyed half of the latter's.

Exhaling silently Tigress looked around at the selected devices that had been laid out around the courtyard, most likely put there this morning by Shifu (She assumed that he had figured they would not spend the entire of the day inside the hall – just as well really) and shook her head, none of the few selected were going to last two minutes under her fists nor were they going to keep her as distracted as what she needed to be. Turning right however, Tigress' eyes fell on something that would reluctantly do the trick … for her fists at least: the Ironwood Trees.

They weren't technically in the courtyard as such, more off to the side planted not very far from the clearing where Shifu was often found meditating if the day was nice, or playing his signature flute (The Five had attempted on countless occasions to catch him off guard – they had yet to succeed). With just under twenty years of practice on the solid trunks, Tigress was well aware that they provided more than enough of a match for her, but that wasn't what made her so reluctant about them.

 _Oh don't be stupid!_ The little voice inside her piped up, _you've been training on them for twenty years and haven't given him a second thought when doing so in fifteen of them. Why should now be any different?_

Because ever since Shifu had informed them of Oogway's vision of Tai Lung's return, Tigress' dreams had gotten worse than what they already had been and nearly every little move she made since then had threatened to take her back twenty years to a time she didn't want to relive any more than what she wanted to relive her days at Bao Gu orphanage, but unlike the latter, her head seemed to make it so she didn't have much of a choice in the matter.

Letting out a quiet growl and forcing herself to believe she was just being pitiful, she flipped her body flawlessly over to the nearest Ironwood Tree that stood out a little from the rest so she was still in full view of the rest of the Five and resumed the starting position to deliver the first punch.

 _ **You can do it…**_

 _'Shut up!'_

 _ **Come on … you can do it.**_

 _'I said shut up!'_

 _ **Don't be scared little girl.**_

 _'No! No … no …'_

* * *

 _"No, Tai Lung, I'm not sure I can do this."_

 _Tigress had been with the Snow Leopard all afternoon, watching with so much excitement, awe and anticipation as he had taken a different turn today as far as training went as a change from the Training Hall's devices, which he had said were in need of a rest from training on, not because he was getting bored of them but because most of them were currently broken from the last week's merciless beatings on them._

 _The tiger cub hadn't seen very much of her friend this week, much to her dismay. Master Shifu and Oogway had been by his side for the most of it and because her adoptive father and the Grand Master were both still unaware of her knowledge of Tai Lung or her encounters with him on a daily basis, she had had to stay away._

 _This afternoon however, to her utmost delight, Tai Lung had been outside and alone; Oogway and Shifu had made themselves scarce after the midday gong. Shifu had spent the morning with Tigress by the Moon Pool in the Hall of Warriors – a place she was not allowed to be in alone; only if he or Oogway were with her. He had been teaching her the next level of discipline using the very dominoes that he had used at Bao Gu before he adopted her. After the session had ended, he had handed her a peach and told her she could roam the gardens for the afternoon while he went and saw Oogway. Tigress had waited until her father's small form had left towards the direction of the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom before sprinting off in the direction of the Training Hall, her heart leaping with excitement. She flew around the corner of the Hall and skidded to a stop as she saw Tai Lung outside; displaying his impressive, merciless kicks and punches onto … She raised an eyebrow … the trees outside the Training Hall._

 _"They're ironwood trees" He explained to her after a while, with a small chuckle "Solid as iron, hence their title, and perfect to beat the daylights out of." He finished the sentence with a strong punch and one of his many impressive kicks on the trunk, which to Tigress' amazement only made the tree shudder slightly._

 _"What type of kick was that?" She asked, seated comfortably off to the side watching him "You use it quite a lot."_

 _"It's called a Roundhouse kick, very common in Kung Fu, hence why you see me use it so much. The punch I used is also a very common one, known simply as a straight punch."_

 _"… Very original" Tigress said with a giggle._

 _"You're starting to understand sarcasm now I see" the Snow Leopard with a grin._

 _"Tell me what other kicks and punches there are … please?" She stood up and balled her fists up. "What was that one you did a while ago … the one looked a bit like this?" She uncurled her paws slightly and punched one paw – very oddly – into the air while bringing the other around in a rainbow-like kind of motion to strike off at the side, though, leaning too far over, the tiger cub ended up losing her balance in the process and fell down with arms flailing about her onto the ground._

 _A humorous chuckle was heard in front of her as Tai Lung linked one paw under her arm and helped the cub back onto her feet "I think what you were trying to pull off there was, ironically, the Leopard Strike. It doesn't go quiiiite like that but I think you'd be better off learning some of the basics firsts; that particular strike is for more advanced students."_

 _"Okay" Tigress said, working to stop her cheeks from reddening at her embarrassing fail in front of the Snow Leopard._

 _Tigress watched and listened with great interest as Tai Lung proceeded to show her first a series of punches, including the Back Fist, the Uppercut Punch, the Palm Strike, the Knife Hand strike and the Hook Punch. After that he showed her the four basic kicks of Kung Fu which were the Front Kick, the Side Kick, the Hook Kick and the one she'd asked about earlier; the Roundhouse Kick._

 _"Right" Tai Lung backed up to stand beside one of the trees and gestured towards its trunk … "it's your turn."_

 _"Huh?"_

 _"It's your turn little girl."_

 _"My turn to what?"_

 _"Punch, duh."_

 _"…" Tigress wasn't as nervous as what she'd been that time when he'd jokingly asked her if she wanted to have a go on the Field of Fiery Death but something told her he wasn't joking about this one. Resisting the urge to wring her paws together she edged slowly towards the trunk._

 _"Come on little girl, you can do it" the Snow Leopard gave her an encouraging smile. Tigress gulped, swallowing the small lump forming in her throat._

 _"I don't think I can do it."_

 _"Well if we don't try, we'll never know will we?" Tai Lung moved behind her "Let's start with the Straight Punch; it's the standard power punch of Kung Fu, a simple, easy one for you to get started on."_

 _Tigress looked at the large trunk in front of her and gulped again before squaring her shoulders in an attempt to look braver than what she currently felt and moved into the ready stance that Tai Lung had shown her, standing tall with her fists drawn to the top of her hips with the heels of her fists touching each hip. Her legs straight with her feet turned out slightly with heels still touching each other. 'This feels good' she couldn't help thinking._

 _She felt a paw pat her right leg gently "Good work little girl, now … pivot your body to the right and move this leg back so your foot is turned in the same direction."_

 _She moved her foot back and felt her whole body tipping backwards "Whoa …"_

 _However, before she could even think about turning her arms back into windmills like she'd done earlier, the cub felt the massive paw instantly holding her firmly around the right side of her waist, steadying her. "Easy now, easy" There was no annoyance in his tone, only encouragement, "you lost your upper posture, that's what caused you to lose your balance." His paw moved lightly up her spine and pushed gently, moving it back to a straight posture. "Always keep your back straight. Try again."_

 _Moving back into the stance with new determination, Tigress inhaled and moved her leg back again, keeping her back as straight as she could. Her foot hit the ground again, facing right and her upper posture kept perfectly._

 _"That's better, much better" the Snow Leopard praised, and Tigress felt her heart begin to swell, though she fought not to show it so soon "now … you remember the next part?"_

 _The cub nodded and with focus, moved her balled up fists in front of her, keeping the right fist closer to her chest while her left came up in front of her cheek. 'This feels even better' she thought happily._

 _"There's a warrior in you yet, little girl" Tai Lung said with a grin, "you ready?"_

 _Tigress nodded again, though with a tad more nervousness than the last one and looked the trunk up and down. 'Come on, you can do it … you can do it …'_

 _"You CAN do it Tigress" Tai Lung said behind her as if he heard what she was thinking … or she had accidentally thought it out loud absentmindedly, she wasn't sure._

 _"I can … I can" She said._

 _"Go."_

 _Pivoting her body back to the front, she extended her right arm out, fast, and her knuckles made solid contact with the tree's bark, making a reasonably loud banging noise. Tigress was immobile with shock, her arm still outstretched, her knuckles still in solid contact with the trunk and her right foot still planted solidly behind her; it was as if the punch had turned her into a stone statue. There wasn't a sound for a couple of solid minutes._

 _"Well" Tai Lung's tone was laced with surprise as he spoke "That was … brilliant, especially for a first time."_

 _Tigress still couldn't move; she felt like she did the first time she had met Tai Lung, when she had been terrified at what he was going to do. Though it wasn't fear she was feeling now, it was just complete and utter shock. She couldn't even convince herself to move when the Snow Leopard placed a paw on her back and gave it a gentle rub "hey … yoohoo … Tigress, are you okay?"_

 _Finally managing to find the slightest squeak of her voice, she rasped out in the tiniest of mews "… Ow"_

 _Her knuckles had begun to throb after their introduction with the Ironwood Tree, as she supposed should have been expected. At last she moved, bringing her punching paw back and rubbing her knuckles with the other paw "that … hurt" She said in a stronger voice, "But … felt … good." She turned to meet the Snow Leopard's grinning muzzle "I … did it…" no longer feeling the throb in her paw she broke into a grin herself "I did it!"_

 _Tai Lung nodded "told ya you could do it little girl..."_

* * *

"Tigress … Tigress! … **TIGRESS!** "

The leader of the Furious Five snapped back to the present with a jump that was almost several feet into the air. She landed, breathing hard and fast and turned to find the rest of the Five staring at her; a mix of confusion, concern and worry etched into their features as they eyed their leader down. "What the HELL was all that about?"

Tigress blinked at Viper who had spoken, still breathing rather rigidly "What was what about?" she asked, finding herself half dreading the answer as the question left her lips.

"You went … crazy." Crane said in a volume that sounded as if he feared speaking was going to either going to kill him or mortally wound him.

"We thought you were truly going to break the tree – break the **Ironwood Tree** – you were punching it so hard." Monkey said in a voice that was just as barely audible as what Cranes had been.

"Tigress, you are scaring all of us now with this behaviour, first the Training Hall, now the Ironwood Trees … what is going on?"

Tigress' mouth closed to form a very thin grim line across her muzzle. Turning away, avoiding eye contact with all of them as she looked back at the tree which she had apparently absentmindedly unleashed a fury unlike anything her comrades had ever seen upon it. She let a low growl escape her throat, "Nothing."

"No!" Viper's voice had changed from worry to almost pure anger "there is no way in hell that **THAT** was nothing. You're hiding something, there's something you're not telling us. What is going on Tigress? Where on earth has all this come from? What happened?!"

"Nothing!" the Tiger snapped, rising to her full height – which was much taller than what Viper and the rest of the Five were (Well, Crane she admitted wasn't too far off her mark) and cast a vicious glare at the serpent as she felt her temper beginning to rise "There is nothing wrong. I am fine, simply got lost in the motion. End. Of. Story."

"Tigress, you wouldn't give me a look like that if nothing was wrong. I know you." Viper was the kindest out of the Five but she was also never one to back down and if something was amiss, she always got to the core of it. It vaguely reminded Tigress of that time a few years back when she was absolutely certain that Crane had developed a secret crush on someone – 'Lady Problems' as Mantis called it – due to his quiet and unnaturally glum and disheveled status throughout the day, but, as they eventually discovered, it was only because he had lost his hat the night before which Monkey had stolen as a joke (the Simian had laughed as hard as what Viper had surprisingly blushed).

But, just like Viper, Tigress was also one to stand her ground … and everyone in the entire Valley of Peace knew it. Hardening her glare but lowering it slightly so she was no longer making direct eye contact with Viper, she inhaled sharply "Obviously not well enough." She said through gritted fangs.

"What's. Going. On." Viper pressed on with a tone that wasn't far from urgent.

"Enough!"

"Tigress –"

"Stop!"

"Tigress, please …"

" **NO!** " Her blood boiling over along with her temper, the Tiger turned and with one powerful leap, she sprang – with way too much force than was necessary – over the heads of the Masters who were each showing a slightly different expression and sprinted off towards the palace in the direction of her dormitory, leaving her comrades to bathe in the echo of her thunderous eruption, her head storming and her blood, she felt, was soon going to singe her fur from the inside.

 _ **You can do it … you can do it…**_

 _Yeah … now I've done it …_

* * *

Mantis looked bemusedly after Tigress' vanished form for a few moments before turning to the fellow members; looking from Monkey's startled face to Crane's look of shock to Viper who held a series of emotions which flicked continuously through her eyes; the insect could see the obvious anger, worry and concern but also a hint of sadness and possibly a tinge of fear.

He closed his eyes and folded his pincers in, shaking his head which rattled his antennae – a noise which was surprisingly loud in the newly dead air after the echo of Tigress' infuriated "NO" had slowly died.

Viper spoke up in a voice that did not sound quite like hers; a voice that trembled with fear, sadness and rage "Something is wrong … I know it … and one way or another, I will find out what has happened, what she's keeping from us …"

Crane exchanged a look with Monkey and the both of them nodded. The Avian placed a wing gently on her tattooed scales, "breathe Viper, we're worried about her too." He said softly. The Simian nodded again "Yeah … We'll help you find out what's bothering her, right Mantis?"

Mantic looked at the three of them and nodded "maybe it's best if we too head back to the palace now" he said in a lighter voice, attempting to soften the atmosphere if only a little. "It's late afternoon, Master Shifu and Po will probably be done by now." _Assuming the former hasn't killed the latter, that is._

After three murmurs of agreement, the four walked (or in Vipers case, slithered) slowly and quietly back to the palace. Mantis cast one last thought to Tigress and half shrugged.

"PMS" he said, in a tone well out of earshot from the others.

* * *

 **A/N: Just a couple of things I think I should point out, I did look up the different punches and kicks of Kung Fu and tried to describe performing the Straight Punch as well as what I could. I'm aware that the memory bit is a little blunt in places but it is a memory, so Tigress can't expect to remember it to every last little detail, no matter how haunted she is by them. Also when Tigress went haywire on the trees while lost in the memory, that was a shout out to the movie Suckerpunch.**

 **Traces of the Lion King, Mulan and the live action of Beauty and the Beast can be found in this chapter though the latter two are quite subtle and I thought it rather fitting that Tai Lung used the same line to Tigress as what Shifu used to Po, "if we don't try, we'll never know, will we" I believe that at some point, Shifu would have said that to Tai Lung when he was a cub. All gotta start somewhere right? and I've also implied the ViperXCrane ship as well (though truthfully I hadn't quite realized that at first until I reread the chapter to proof read, coincidence I think not! :P )**

 **Lastly, the last part of this chapter was written for two reasons, one to put some humour into it and two, to hear briefly from another person aside from our two favourite felines. I don't intend to do a full chapter on the point of view from others other than Tigress and Tai Lung but, either at the beginning or at the end of certain chapters there will be parts told from others. We'll definitely hear from Viper at some point and possibly Shifu as well.**

 **Oh and for those who may be wondering about why, in the memories, Shifu hasn't properly introduced Tigress to Tai Lung and her even knowing about him is a secret; yes I know it sounds a little bizarre that Shifu and Oogway both haven't seemed to have thought that since the felines both live in the Jade Palace they would meet at some point, but there is an idea behind that and it will clear up in the coming chapters ...**


	5. Unstoppable

**A/N: Yikes! And I thought writing chapter 3 was hard ... *Crawls into hidey-hole* ... oh well, got there in the end with the help of fellow author NotMooseandSquirrel who assisted me on the last part of this chapter, thanks muchly. On we go ...**

* * *

Zeng was almost certain his beak was going to smash to bits from chattering. Not from the cold; the icy temperatures of the outskirts of Mongolia was nearly two days behind him and the big, dark shape of the Jade Palace now loomed ahead of him in the distance as he flew jaggedly towards it, bearing the warm breeze of the evening on his robed wings. His beak chattered out of fear and shock as he recalled just what happened two days ago in the depths of Chorh-Gom prison.

Tai Lung had escaped.

How exactly the snow leopard had managed to free himself from his restraints was still a mystery to the messenger goose and he was both astonished and absolutely petrified at just how easily the convict had scaled the levels and defeated the guards of Chorh-Gom as if he were strolling the palace gardens and plucking dandelions.

For a small moment Commander Vachir and the guards had scored the upper hand when they triggered the dynamite that infested the ceiling of the prison exploding the stalactites which crashed down onto the final level with Tai Lung still upon it, destroying it and supposedly sending him to certain death in the seemingly bottomless pit of the prison. But the cat was obviously cleverer than what any of them thought because somehow … _somehow_ … he had managed to beat the falling rubble to the last stalactite still intact with the roof, grabbed its surrounding dynamite and hurled it in their direction; exploding the entrance and sending the majority of the guards – Vachir included – over the cliff; but none of that had been what frightened Zeng the most.

Luckily for the goose, he had been ripped from Vachir's grip in the explosion so he had landed with a thump and small skid onto the ledge just outside the prison's entrance. He hadn't moved for a time; simply too shocked to find movement in his limbs – it had taken more than one go to finally attempt to even lift his head up – being winded and dizzy certainly didn't help. However he managed to fill his lungs rather quickly with a flinching gasp as Vachir's golden horn-piece had fallen on the ground beside him with a clang, nearly giving the poor bird a heart attack – as if someone had dropped it beside him on purpose. He had had only a moment to register that fact before **thunk!** Zeng had been pinned to the ground again in another grip around the base of his neck.

This grip had been a lot less tougher than Commander Vachir's, more softer and furry … there had only been one person in Chorh-Gom that had been covered in fur. Zeng had fought and squirmed like crazy in the grip as he had been lifted up effortlessly from the ground. He had known exactly who had been holding him before he saw his face which made him gulp loudly.

Tai Lung had looked at him for a moment; the feline had showed no anger, no fury and no ill will towards him, in fact he looked a little out of sorts himself; though Zeng put that on the fact he was probably grateful he'd finally broken out of prison – much to the panic attack the goose knew Shifu was going to have when he found out the news. _Assuming I get out of this alive and CAN tell him._

The feline holding him finally exhaled with the starting of a smile on his muzzle … and then he had spoken.

"I'm glad Shifu sent you…" Tai Lung had raised his other paw to Zeng and for one terrifying moment, Zeng had thought the snow leopard was going to end him right there and then, but then his paw had gently stroked the goose's head fondly, almost in a … comforting kind of way. When Zeng had looked back at the convict, – under the fear – he got a little confused; not only at the action, which was very odd coming from **him** , but also the look on his face.

The snow leopard seemed distant, dazed … as though for a moment, he wasn't actually there, he was somewhere else entirely. Something had seemed to have triggered him in the comforting gesture. For a second there … Tai Lung had looked the tiniest bit shocked himself … and Zeng no longer believed that was because of his mightily impressive breakout.

That one moment – though gone almost as soon as it had arrived – was, oddly, what was on Zeng's mind … so vivid and so clear – which surprised him greatly considering everything else that happened – as he flew; the Jade Palace becoming nearer and nearer by the minute. He was so lost in thought about that one look … so out of character with everything else, that he didn't realize he was headed straight for the roof of the Training Hall – or rather the side of it.

Realizing in the nick of time, Zeng swerved up and over, flapping wildly, as that little manoeuvre had unfortunately made him lose control of his flight, and after flapping around in the air like a maniac for a good minute or so, the goose finally gave up and fell – wings still flailing about him but his beak thankfully no longer chattering like a clarinet – through the large opening through the roof and onto the bare floor of the (packed up for the night) Training Hall; his tired form only meters away from the meditating Master Shifu.

* * *

The cold, frosty air felt glorious on Tai Lung's shoulder blades as he sprinted full speed through the mountains, taking only a day and a half to cover just over half of the icy passages that would have taken a humble villager nearly a week.

He never particularly minded the cold much – being a snow leopard and therefore built for freezing temperatures such as that of the Mongolia Mountains – but the last couple of days he couldn't help but see the cold as something of a blessing – he was feeling something on his back that finally wasn't that torturous tortoise restraint complete with those acupuncture needles placed precisely above the crucial nerve points that threatened his every move with instant death. So many times in the early days of his imprisonment he had wondered why they didn't just kill him there and then. If that tedious device was ensuring his instant death if he moved more than three inches then it had seemed relatively pointless to keep him alive, especially since – as Vachir had told him countless a number of times with an evil cackle – he was 'never' getting out of there. _Who's laughing now huh?_

Of course the cold didn't last too long in the feline's mind as he covered mile after mile; inching closer to the Jade Palace with the hours that passed (though he was aware that there was at least a solid week and a half before he actually got there) – partly due to the uncontrolled adrenaline surging through his muscular form as he scaled up various cliff faces and flew over peaks and therefore eliminating the feel of the icy wind blowing, but mostly because of the two other thoughts that heavily plagued him; The Dragon Scroll and revenge.

The Dragon Scroll was destined to be his; he HAD to have it, there was no other who was deemed worthier of it than himself – isn't that what Shifu had constantly drilled into his head, made him believe, adamant on keeping him on that sole path that was his and his alone? The red panda … his _father_ had told him he was 'destined for greatness'; destined to bring peace to the valley, to protect the citizens and battle the foes … Shifu had said that. When Oogway refused him, Shifu practically accepted without argument – giving no more than a sorrowful look towards Tai Lung before dipping his head and turning away. Shifu betrayed him; had let him fall without blinking twice from the spectacular heights he had scaled for his father _and_ for Oogway. Just thinking about it made him see red; he would take the Scroll and his revenge on both of them all in one hand.

He was the Dragon Warrior … the **real** Dragon Warrior – regardless of whomever it was that that crazy old tortoise to chosen otherwise. Tai Lung had to wonder who it was; who had been properly chosen. Was it a random citizen from the valley, someone from a distant land elsewhere … or was it the one he heavily dreaded had received it since he had heard Vachir gloat to him about it just before he escaped Chorh-Gom … Tigress.

His blood boiled anew for her. She was almost a separate thought altogether from the other two main ones in his head, though why that was; he was still trying to work out. He was placing his bets on the fact that it was because of the high probability that she had been chosen as the Dragon Warrior and while that screwed with his mind something wicked, he could reluctantly see why that might be the case. He had seen the sparks of a promising warrior in that little cub … and from what he had heard over the years at Chorh-Gom, she was now Master Shifu's top student, had learnt just over half of the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu (Vachir had mentioned this in one of the Commander's many pleasurable torments on the snow leopard) and the leader of the legendary group of masters; the Furious Five.

A low, menacing growl escaped his throat as he tore through the mountains; the temperature very gradually rising with the distance he was rapidly placing between himself and the frigid outskirts of Mongolia where Chorh-Gom – what was left of it - resided, slowly entering a warmer climate. Even after twenty rough years under the 'utmost care' of the Anvil of Heaven, he still remembered that little girl; that tiger cub – she was so clear in his mind – that he had come to care for, protect and somewhat teach … and try as he might, the snow leopard simply couldn't rid himself of the recent memory that had made it's uninvited appearance after his escape out of Chorh-Gom…

He had landed with ease in the freshly blown up entrance of Chorh-Gom after flying down from the last remaining stalactite thanks to his perfect aim with the last plug of dynamite which had happily done the honours of not only exploding the doorway, but also smiting most of the Anvil of Heaven (and those that weren't killed were at least very heavily unconscious) – which unlocked his last door to freedom. It took all he had in him not to just take off right there and then, but something – or rather - someone had stopped him, keeping him back for a moment.

The messenger goose – the one whose very feather had freed the snow leopard – laid face down only a few meters from Tai Lung, having skidded to a stop after being ripped from the neck-hold that Vachir had had him in when the dynamite exploded – and for quite a while prior. For a moment the goose didn't look like he was going to move, that he too had died along with most of the others. Tai Lung had to admit that to some degree he regretted the explosion costing the life of the bird. After all without him, the snow leopard would not be standing here right now; he'd still be shackled down on the pinnacle awaiting one of his daily torments and usual treatments including icy water and leather straps … and they were only if the Commander had decided to be kind.

Then the goose moved… it was visibly obvious even from behind that he was winded, dazed and shaken but nevertheless alive. Somewhere deep down in his gut, Tai Lung felt the regret turn into relief as he watched the goose make a few failed attempts to lift himself off of the ground before seemingly deciding to minimize the goal to just lifting his head, and he wasn't having much luck with that either.

A gleam of gold flashed out of the corner of the snow leopards eye, striking from a very small object to the right of him. When he turned for inspection he found it was the golden horn-piece of Vachir's; the endless eruptions of the dynamite still exploding within the prison created the light which reflected off of it. Bending down, Tai Lung snatched it up for a brief observation of its visibly well-polished surface – sparking up a brief vision of the old longing he had had in the early years of his imprisonment when he had very much wanted to punch the Commander out cold whenever his daily drawls started and continued for hours before starting on the physical treatment. Plenty of times he had imagined finally getting the better of Vachir (the Commander would have been no match for the spotted feline if not for that damn restraint) and keeping his tiny golden piece of armour as a souvenir from it. Of course that image changed into something far more dark, bloody and graphic than just a simple knock out as the years dragged on and 'getting the better' of Vachir turned into one of the biggest understatements in Tai Lungs history … he had wanted to kill Vachir … and the ways he had imagined doing so made the kills of his rampage look like child's play and were disturbing even for the snow leopard.

Turning the horn-piece over once in his paw, Tai Lung sneered at it, realizing that with how much hatred and molten fury he had for the Rhino, keeping part of his attire would be more of a burden and a reminder of what he did to him more that it would be a reward for defeating him.

A raspy exhale of breath brought the snow leopard's attention back to Shifu's messenger who had finally managed to somewhat raise his head an inch or two off the ground, stretching his whole neck out as if trying to give his windpipe as clear a road as what as he could to get air back into his lungs. Glancing from the goose to the horn-piece and back to the goose again, Tai Lung moved silently until he was a foot behind the little body, before dropping the horn-piece down with an ugly **clang** as it hit the ground an inch away from the goose's head.

This caused an abrupt flinch from the bird and the manoeuvre also seemed to have given the goose the much needed air back into his lungs, which was partly why the cat had dropped it. Tai Lung didn't give the startled messenger a chance to realize where the small piece of armour had come from (though it did seem like he might have had a hunch from the way his eyes bulged out of his head so far out that the convict could see them from behind). Immediately in one fast move, one bulky, muscly, furry arm shot out and grabbed the goose by the base of his neck in a very similar if not the same fashion that Vachir had had him in – firm but not tight enough that the bird couldn't breathe … though from the way the soul was struggling and choking, one might think that was the case.

Whether the goose was merely over exaggerating on the shortness in breath or he was just too scared and shaken to realize he wasn't in a hold tight enough to suffocate him, Tai lung wasn't sure. What he did know was that he was not going to kill this bird or hurt him in anyway, for two reasons; this goose was the reason the feline was standing in the cold air breathing in the new (or old depending on one's point of view) scent of freedom, and also the fact that he had his own message for the goose to send back to Shifu and the rest of the residents at the Jade Palace.

Said goose was now looking as though his tiny eyes were going to pop out of their sockets after realizing who the owner of the grip which he was now captive in was (if it was under different circumstances Tai Lung might have chuckled at that). However something about the birds look – his wide eyes, shaken figure, the beginning of tears welling in the eyes – had triggered something inside the spotted feline – way down deep beside the regret that turned into relief earlier at the fact that the goose still lived; as if it was an exact replica of a look he'd seen before; it wasn't clear at first, nor – admittedly – was it understandable …

The bird let out a very terrified gulp then … which signified that yes, he could breathe perfectly fine, and despite the earlier secret declaration that he was never going to hurt the tiny thing, Tai Lung felt the corners of his muzzle twitch upwards at the fact that he hadn't lost his intimidating stance – though, him generally being so large compared to the tiny form of the goose might have largely contributed to the birds frightened stance … it was this thought that finally rendered to the surface exactly where the snow leopard had seen that look before; the day he'd first met Tigress.

 _Cripes. That's the – what? – Sixth time tonight you've thought of her? Dammit man, snap out of it!_

Swallowing back the lingering growl lingering at the top of his throat, Tai Lung replaced it – difficultly – with a slow exhale; the misty fog of his breath circling the goose's head. In an attempt to extinguish the spark that threatened to flare up – for the second time that night – the memory of the day he met the little misfit, the snow leopard spoke up deeply and softly.

"I'm glad Shifu sent you."

He rose up a paw to stroke the goose in a comforting kind of manor, though from the way the bird eyed the paw and tried shrink away from it with the small yelp, Tai Lung was ready to bet the feathered creature believed that he was going to tear his chattering back to shreds. "I was beginning to think I'd been forgotten."

Unfortunately this gesture sparked up another memory … so insignificant and small, Tai Lung unintentionally felt his eyes widen at the shock that he could remember it at all. Furrowing his brows he narrowed his eyes back down to a golden glare that skewered into the goose's brown piggy-like eyes.

"Fly back there and tell them…" He lowered his voice even more "the **real** Dragon Warrior … is coming home" the ending three words were said in nothing more than a hissy whisper.

The chattering beak chattered even more loudly still as the owner of it nodded with what almost looked like terrified smile that said quite clearly _"I will … now please let me go!"_

Tai Lung threw the bird up into the air and watched him fly rather pitilessly away from the battered rubble that was now the remains of Chorh-Gom prison and it was then, without warning, that the 'small and insignificant' memory made its way into the snow leopards mind – said leopard too shocked at the fact he could even remember this memory to stop it …

* * *

 _Whatever it was that woke Tai Lung up was unknown. He had assumed that it was the wonderful ever-present dream he had had for years now that he was named the Dragon Warrior and Oogway presented him with the legendary Dragon Scroll with a proud expression, a look of pride on Master Shifu's face and a beaming grin on his own as the snow leopard bowed and took the cylinder as if it were made of glass, popping off the lid to slide out the delicate scroll which in the dream was a jet black colour. The dream always ended right as he opened the scroll, whatever the scroll contained he never found out; there was always a blinding white light that seemed to erupt from the parchment the moment he opened it up …_

 _The snow leopard sighed and turned onto his back in bed, placing his paws up behind his head, staring at the ceiling. He had been having that dream for thirteen years - ever since he was six years old on the day that his father had told him about his magnificent destiny. He was so close to finishing the Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu – oh so close. He only had four more to master and then he was done, finished, complete; ready to receive the final scroll, the legendary scroll, the scroll that Shifu had told him on countless occasions was destined to be his, the scroll that he'd happily explained about to Tigress who surprisingly had no idea about it prior. In no less than a month, he would be ready to become the Dragon Warrior._

 _It was a quiet night; still in incredibly early hours of the morning. The occasional hoots from the night owls were the only thing breaking the silence aside from the spotted cat's own steady breathing as he lay there in the dark still thinking about the scroll he would soon receive and the title he would soon be given._

 _It was at least five minutes before the snow leopard became aware of another sound, distant and quiet but nevertheless audible. Sitting up in an attempt to hear it better he listened more intently than before, picking up on a shaking squeaky sound like that of a little kitten … it sounded very much like whimpering._

 _Getting up silently, Tai Lung shuffled across his room in the door and opened it quietly, peering down the wooden panelled corridor. He didn't have to be too quiet really; all the other dorms were empty, had been as long as he'd been there. Shifu slept on the other side of the Jade Palace in his own personal bunk and Oogway … well truthfully the feline wondered at times if the tortoise ever slept at all or whether he simply meditated under the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom come nightfall and stayed like that until First Light. He knew at times, Shifu had done just that – but sometimes Tai Lung had to wonder if the meditation had gone as successfully as what the red panda had hoped, because boy did the cat wear the impact of his sleepy disgruntled father come some mornings … those days in general were never pleasant._

 _Working his way lightly down the corridor and turning left towards the stairs where the cries were now getting louder, Tai Lung padded up the stairs to the next set of bunks; its corridor which looked identical to his except one story up was as silent as what his was. The whimpering seemed to be coming from the next story up. Padding up the last flight of stairs he came to a stop in the last dormitory that he hadn't stepped foot in in the longest while. The corridor was exactly identical to the last two sets below. He hadn't been in this set since he was a cub – rightly so of course as this top set was the children's dormitory, the middle set was the intermediate and the last set on the bottom floor was for the seniors that was where he now slept. No one had slept in the upper two dormitories for years aside from himself. Actually he had been the only one who slept in this whole bunkhouse since he'd turned five and no longer allowed to sleep in Shifu's room because he was the only student here._

 _The whimpering, however, was coming from the first door on the right of the children's bunk, it was much louder now and he could make out the sound of blankets being ripped and the words "no" and "stop" and "please"._

 _The snow leopard slunk swiftly to the door and knocked on it quietly. The noise continued as if he had never made a sound so he slowly pushed it open a crack, concerned as to just who was in there and why they were making so much noise, and of that nature … then he saw the stripes._

 _Tigress lay on the bed, her little body writhing and squirming as she tossed one way then another; the two silken blankets she'd originally had around her had both fallen to the ground as Tai Lung opened up her door. Her little paws were scrunching up the sheet she was lying on; her claws unsheathed and were beginning to tear up the material violently into silky shreds. Her eyes were shut up tight but tears had started to fall down her cheeks as she whimpered "Don't send me back … I'm not a monster … stop … please!"_

 _Tai Lung inhaled sharply … a nightmare …_

 _In one leap he covered the distance from the door to the cub; coming down beside her and shaking her shoulder "Tigress …" He hissed urgently, "little girl … Tigress! Wake up!" With each word his voice got louder and shaking her shoulder got more vigorous "It's just a nightmare little girl! Wake up, it's just a nightmare! Tigress, **WAKE UP!** "_

 _Finally with a strangled cry, the little feline's eyes shot open and she sat bolt right up, scrambling away from the older cat's paw on her shoulder in a frenzy, nearly screaming. "Please! Please don't send me back! I'm not a monster!"_

 _"Tigress! … woah, hey, hey calm down little girl, calm down, you'll wake the whole palace!" Tai Lung reached out both paws and grabbed the cub from behind around the waist, holding her in a firm, steady grip more to prevent her from doing harm to herself than anything else "It's just me."_

 _"I'm not a … not a …" Her high pitched voice wound down to a stop like a music box that had stopped, needing to be turned up again. She coughed a couple of times and drew in a few very rigid, shaky breaths before turning slowly around to the snow leopard who was still kneeling beside her and had released his hold on her after being convinced that she was not going to start moving frantically around like a ferret on an adrenaline rush again. He was still worried of course, and on top of that a little bit ashamed of himself at the fact that he had forgotten all about Tigress when he was wondering who else could've been in the bunkhouse aside from him. She was past the age of needing an adult to sleep with her, so where else would she be sleeping, the Training Hall? He considered himself a little dumb that he hadn't figured this out before – not something he was going admit aloud to anyone though._

 _Meeting the younger feline's eyes as she faced him, he offered her a worried, sympathetic look before reaching out and placing a hand gingerly on shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. "It's okay."_

 _"Oh … Tai…" With one more look at him with huge, watery, fearful golden eyes, a sob suddenly shook the cub's body something wicked and she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms as far as they could go around his neck and crying uncontrollably into his shoulder; soaking it with her tears. "Master Sh-Shifu was g-gonna send me b-back to the … or-orphanage." She blubbered, her body raking with sobs, "he t-t-told me I was a m-monster who couldn't b-be tamed … h-he said adop-dopting me was a mis-ss-stake… he s-said …"_

 _For a small moment, the snow leopard could do nothing more than just sit rooted there in shock. He hadn't exactly expected her to throw herself at him the way she did. He supposed he should have expected something like that to occur. The poor thing was shaking like nothing else, but he wasn't quite accustomed to someone doing something like that. Slowly he lifted his arms and placed them around her, unsure if this was helping or not, but deciding he should at least try to do something. "Shh, it's okay little girl." He did understand why she was so frightened; he remembered his own nightmare from when he was a cub, similar to that of Tigress'. Except it hadn't been an orphanage that Shifu had sent him back to … Shifu had instead abandoned him in the middle of a dark forest, ignoring his cries of "Baba!" as his father left him, cold and surrounded by countless pairs of evil looking eyes and sharp, gleaming fangs. He hadn't had this nightmare in almost thirteen years now, since around the same time he'd been told the tale of the Dragon Scroll and his destiny to be the Dragon Warrior, but he still remembered it vividly. "It was just a nightmare."_

 _Nothing was said for a time; just the sound of Tigress' muffled sobs into his shoulder could be heard for a while until finally it turned gradually into sniffling and then into hiccups. The snow leopard rubbed her back lightly before pulling away and looking at her._

 _She did look quite a sight, her eyes were watery, puffy and red, her cheek fur sopping wet and her fur on her arms was all mattered and ruffled up from her sobbing and shaking. The cub looked away, visibly ashamed and embarrassed at her breakdown "Sorry" she spoke quietly, her voice still semi choked up from crying "I didn't mean to wake you Tai … sorry if I did."_

 _Without really thinking about it, the snow leopard placed his paw gently on her cheek, brushing away the remaining tears with his thumb "I was already awake Tigress, and I'm glad that I was…" he glanced at her bed "something tells me you may not have had a bed to sleep in if I hadn't woke you up."_

 _Tigress' bed didn't look too shabby admittedly aside from the blankets pooled in the floor beside it and four deep slashes through her bed sheet where she had clawed through it; he assumed it was maybe because of her trying to keep hold of Shifu in her nightmare or something of that nature. But he could only dare to think what might have happened if he hadn't pulled her out of that dream; it wasn't really the state of her bedroom or her bed that he was worried about, (honestly, she had over five more rooms to choose from in this dormitory and if they didn't work then there were two other sections she could choose from … wasn't like anyone was there aside from him) more it was the concern that she could have hurt herself, especially with how violently she had been tossing that could have resulted in dislocation of a bone and how close her unsheathed claws had got to her own fur._

 _Tigress followed his gaze to her bed and started shaking again "do you think Master Shifu would do it? Would he actually send me back to the orphanage?"_

I don't think I would allow that _Tai Lung thought truthfully. Deciding to make an solid attempt at this, he sat down on the bed and held out both paws slowly. Tigress moved in until she was curled up in his lap, her head resting against his creamy white chest fur. He went back to rubbing her back in light, circular motions - the way he remembered Shifu doing when he was a cub - he answered._

 _"No. I don't think he would ever send you back to the orphanage."_

 _"He might …" the cub got tearful again "He scolded me y-yesterday for snapping one of the dominoes on a-accident. He said I wasn't focused enough on my d-discipline."_

 _Well that explained where the nightmare came from; it didn't sound like he'd scolded her too badly and he knew there were harsher ways he could've handled that, but she was only a cub, still just a child. He spoke softly, "Master Shifu can be a little harsh at times; I'll admit that … heck, I'm been training under his eye since I was six … since I was your age little girl; I know how harsh and stubborn he can be, believe me. But he only does what he knows is best for his students. You can't get better unless you know what the mistake is so you can get it right next time. He scolds a lot, but he is still proud of me" -_ At least, I bloody hope he is - _"_ _just like he is proud of you and will be even more so when he starts teaching you Kung Fu … actually you said that he's already teaching - taught - you discipline yes? Well, there's your proof that he does see the warrior inside you. He wouldn't have started teaching you Kung Fu or anything close to it if he didn't see your potential in it."_

 _Tigress sniffed "He started teaching me discipline when I was at the orphanage because I had physical strength that I couldn't control. Everyone there was afraid of me … I was a monster … they called me a monster."_

 _Tai Lung remembered that story, he was still unable to believe that was the case "You are not a monster, Tigress." He felt the girl flinch at the harshness of the statement. He softened his tone down a little "Don't ever think that"._

 _"Shifu … said that too." She admitted. "But everyone in the orphanage thought I was."_

 _"Well they were all wrong. Master Shifu is correct; you're not a monster, maybe a little misunderstood, but most definitely not a monster. Shifu wouldn't adopt a monster. Shifu wouldn't train a monster" – he would remember that last statement in the not too distant future in awful irony – "I'm kinda glad that Shifu adopted you." He admitted, moving his paw up to her stripy little head to pat it fondly while turning his head around to look out of her window behind him at the starry night, the tips of the trees just in sight, moving softly with the gentle breeze that accompanied the cloudless night sky, "had he not, I ... guess I wouldn't have another buddy besides the Wooden Warriors."_

 _That got a small laugh out of the cub "Yeah … I guess so …" Silence for a moment, then, "hey … Tai?"_

 _"Mm?"_

 _"Thank you ... for being here."_

 _The snow leopard looked back at her. He supposed he had succeeded in the whole comforting thing. He rocked her back and forth gently, ignoring the new slightly weird feeling he was getting by doing this. He went back to watching the night move by from her window. "Anytime" he said softly._

 _Neither of them said anything after that for the longest while. It wasn't until the snow leopard actually looked back down at her that he realized she had fallen back asleep; her breathing slow and steady and her little heartbeat he could just feel beating against his torso._

 _Moving slowly as to not wake the little cub back up again, he moved the little body off of him and placed her gently back on her bed. Gathering up the blankets from the floor, he placed them over her and tucked her in, giving her one last soft stroke on her head without exactly thinking too much of it, before he moved off towards her door._

 _He smiled as he looked back at her sleeping figure "I am glad Shifu adopted you" He said absentmindedly. Still getting it around his head that he had actually admitted that to her …_

* * *

A growl as loud as thunder sounded up from the snow leopard's throat as he continued to run at incredible speed through the mountains. She really had turned him into a sappy little sook back then … lord knew she was going to pay for that big time. _Big mistake … little girl._

It was no longer a kind, gentle tone that he thought those last two words in like he had used to all those years ago. It was cold, stiff, harsh … the tone which signified that vengeance on her was going to be his … besides … that wasn't all she had done…

The temperature reasonably warmer now as there was no longer snow or the frosty air that accompanied it. There was still a little mist around him, but he knew that this meant he was nearing the end of the mountains; soon he would arrive at the Thread of Hope which was his exit out of the mountains themselves and would take him across the massive gorge into the outskirts of the Valley of Piece, it was a three day run to the Valley from that point on.

However much that fact should've made pleased him greatly, Tai Lung was far from it. He was feeling a mix of confusion and anger as he made his way onwards, unable to stop thinking about the aftermath of his escape out of Chorh-Gom. That 'small and insignificant' memory two days ago had left him standing outside the entrance of Chorh-Gom for way longer than what was necessary, and if it hadn't been for that massive **BOOM** of the last plug of dynamite exploding behind him in the prison's depths then it wasn't certain just how much longer he would have stood there, wasting time that he didn't have to get back to the Jade Palace and claim what was rightfully his.

He was still confused as hell as to how he actually remembered that night. All things about her making him go soft aside, it was so, well, _small_ … unimportant, so tiny in a bigger scheme of things. With everything else that had happened, all he'd been through and all he'd done, he had honestly thought that memories like that simple, random night would just disappear completely from his head; drown out with the floods of icy water that had been dumped on him countless a number of times, dissolving into mist with the chilly dampness and dark atmosphere that clung to the prison walls like leeches, wiped out with the screaming in the early years of Chorh-Gom from the snow leopard whenever Vachir and the rest of them took turns at stomping on his tail or giving him the weekly black eye(s) or lashed up backside. Tai Lung thought that with everything else that had gone down in the last twenty years, memories like that would simply get blown out like a candle on a windy day.

Apparently not.

But why? Still why? Why did he remember that? The feline was sure it had been because of his choice of words to that goose followed up by his fond gesture that probably looked anything but fond in the bird's point of view, not that the convict cared, but now he wasn't so sure.

Why did it bother him so much that he did remember it? Again he'd thought it was because it had to do with that cub ( _no, remember, not a cub anymore; tiger_ ). But after giving it some thought (not something he actually wanted to do but his mind had obviously been one with itself at that point and was not letting him go anywhere else) he realized that maybe there was more to it. What had he said to her that night again? … _Shifu doesn't train monsters_ … Something about that one sentence had made him think profusely. That sentence had stuck with him the moment he'd been placed in Chorh-Gom – well, maybe not from the exact moment … when he had finally risen out of unconsciousness and been told (with a smirk and a heartless laugh from Vachir) where he was. Though why that was, he was also unsure.

That still didn't really explain why that memory had been brought up then of all times and there of all places. Maybe he _was_ just going to have to place it on the words and actions displayed; still didn't stop his mind, uncomfortably trying to turn over any stone he might have missed or any idea he might have overlooked. _Ugh, this is really starting to give me a headache._

He took care of that by roaring again, loud and angry, unsheathed claws making sizable dents in the stone as he pounded the narrow passageways; purely because the memory followed by his stubborn mind was really starting to piss him off. What did he care? He didn't. It was just a dumb memory … of the tiger cub that had had the main role in the last memory about the Field of Fiery Death … and the memory before that on the day he first met her …

Before his thoughts could start turning up again in the way that maybe would have given him the answer to nearly everything he'd just been confused about. Tai Lung saw a light; a very distant, yet obvious light shining through the mist that surrounded him in the mountains. The faster he sprinted, the closer it slowly became; turning into two lights … four … eight … twelve … Tai Lung kept his claws unsheathed as he lost count; the closer he got the more numerous the lights became. Preparing to ambush the suspected visitors or invaders of the mountain, (purely to get them out of his way) He sped up … and pounced …

And an entire village came into view.

The snow leopard skidded to a stop on the ledge, taking in the average sized yet bright village down below him, the lights turning out to be from the various houses and inns that were bunched rather cosily together in a sort of circular shape but scattered up the back mountain as well to form almost the shape of a vase with the mountains surrounding it like a dome. Tai Lung knew this village; _Yin Huāpíng_ , which meant quite literally; Hidden Vase. He'd never properly been there before when he had traveled through more than a few times on his way to battle foes that threatened other places and once to see the Emperor of China with Shifu. Though it had been many years ago now, Tai Lung did recognize the small village by its name and felt the corner of his muzzle twitch up for the first time since (finally) leaving Chorh-Gom – the Thread of Hope lay just beyond the mountain behind Yin Huāpíng,. It was a day's trip to it now, then two days across the whole Thread.

The feline knew he had to rest. He didn't want to; the adrenaline that surged through him was unbelievable. But it was getting into mid-evening now and he hadn't stopped once since Chorh-Gom; mainly because of his determination to reach the Jade Palace and partly due to trying (and failing) to quit thinking about that damn memory. Besides, there was no place to rest on the Thread of Hope – not saying he would need it; but he was going to need all the energy he could get once he got to the Valley. No doubt by now, that messenger goose will have gotten back to the Palace and warned everyone about him, so resting here was a must.

Tai Lung kept to the outskirts as he made his way down. He wasn't dumb enough to think that walking through the main streets was a good idea; snow leopards were rare in this part of China so if he was to waltz right through the centre, there'd be perfect cause for suspicion … well, that and of course, the simple fact of who he was. Hell, every living thing in the whole Empire knew who he was – _I rest my case_.

He bounded lightly around the backs of the houses that were on the side, keeping to the shadows of the surrounding mountains and the scattered trees so anyone who decided to look out of their kitchen windows while making dinner didn't see him or the scattered children who were still playing in the new evening moonlight in their backyards didn't notice his shadow moving along the base of the mountain.

Making his way past an inn, Tai Lung stopped at the smell of the cooking fish that stemmed from it and he felt his stomach rumble a sound that was almost identical to the growl he'd made earlier … Fuck he was hungry. There had been no routine when it came to meal times at Chorh-Gom – they fed him whenever they could be bothered doing so, that having been the case he had been very lucky if it was once every three days, so after twenty years of that, needless to say that smell made him realize he was starving.

Leaping as lightly and as quietly as what he could manage, he made his way over to the open window of the inn where the mouth-watering smell was brewing from and peeped through.

The squid that was obviously marinated and seasoned was cooking in the grill that was directly beneath the window. Across from the grill, engrossed in perfecting what looked like some sort of soup with chopped up parsley, was one of the chefs; a tall, scrawny otter who didn't look a year over twenty. Tai Lung found himself having to bite back an incredulous chuckle; how could one who worked at an inn like this be so damn skinny?

Around the kitchen, which was reasonably big, a number of animals worked at stations. A beefy looking bear was kneading the dough for pastries, a lean jaguar was flipping onions in a pan over a stove, an elephant shuffled his way into the cooling room holding a large bowl of fruit, and a very pretty, slim skunk, who seemed to be the only female in there, was cutting up turnips … very fast!

" **Miàn!** "

Tai Lung nearly jumped out of his pelt at the loud, abrupt shout from the doorway of the kitchen as a reasonably short, stout pig marched into the room; Tai Lung had to assume it was the boss. Miàn, who turned out to be the otter turned quickly with nervousness to the pig "Y-yes chef?"

"Where is that soup, boy? Customers are waiting!" _Yup, definitely the boss_ _._

"Ready now chef!" Placing a large scoop of the soup into a bowl he scurried as fast as he could without dropping it out the door.

Seizing his chance, the snow leopard shot one spotted arm and grabbed the squid off of the grill, ignoring the burning sensation in his pad as it came into contact with the grilling meat. He yanked it back through the window and within seconds he had thudded to the ground, unable to wait until he was back in the shadows of the mountains, (he wasn't worried, no one was in sight to see him) tearing one massive chunk of meat off of the squid and wolfing it down, feeling the grateful relief his stomach was giving him with that chunk and the rest of it that quickly followed.

All too soon the squid was devoured, but his stomach was happy; having finally had a decent meal – or even something _else_ – to eat for the first time in twenty years, other than what the Anvil of Heaven had given him which to this day he was still didn't actually what it had been, only that it tasted disgusting and he had only forced it down to prevent a slow death from starvation.

Hunger extinguished, the feline prepared to melt back into the shadows to find a safe place to lay down for a few hours before continuing onwards towards his destination, his goal, his prize. But before he even so much as lifted a paw to take off, he heard a voice from inside – presumably the skunk as the voice was female – speak up; and he couldn't help pricking his ears up in interest at her words which were spoken in a heavily French accent.

"Have you all heard yet? At ze Jade Palace in ze Valley of Peace. Have you heard about ze one Master Oogway has declared as ze Dragon Warrior?"

* * *

 **A/N: a few things here and there. The first part of this chapter was written because a). I love Zeng so much, he is so adorable and b). I always wondered why he was flapping around for a while before falling into the Training Hall; this story gave me an answer. :P** **As much as I attempted to research China's landscape, it only ended up confusing me so I wrote it based on my own imagination. The village is also made up. I had google translator to help with the name for it (Hidden Vase; very original, I know)**

 **The memory I had originally intended to be from Tigress' POV but I couldn't find an appropriate place to put it as there was no scenario with her that fitted nicely with it, so Tai Lung's it had to be. I also had to make it 'a memory within a memory' in a way so I hope that wasn't too confusing (any question, just ask.) Most of the memories written in this story will have some importance later on but another reason for this memory is that I am the biggest sucker for comfort scenes. I love them *Heartstrings***

 **I had way too much fun writing the last part of this chapter, the animals in the kitchen are inspired by the movies; Madagascar 3, Sing, Over the Hedge, Zootopia and Brother Bear. as for their personalities and their sections, for those who have seen Ratatouille should hopefully see the idea.** **Miàn means Pasta in chinese, just like Linguine means pasta in french.**

 **and the bit about the ways that Tai Lung imagines killing Vachir ... I'll leave that to your imagination, since I don't think I wanna know myself :P**

 **Lastly, there is a main reason Tai Lung despises Tigress so much which hasn't been revealed yet ... and probably won't be for a few more chapters. But don't worry, I do have a nicer path for them eventually ...**

 **P.S: let me know what y'all think, I do like reviews :)**


	6. Deeper

Crawling into a cave and dying quietly hadn't been such a tempting idea to Tigress ever since that time Mantis told everyone she and Monkey had become lovers when he'd walked in on a very awkward looking sight involving the two of them some years ago. She had accidentally nicked Monkey in his inner thigh in a sparring match and when she was placing ointment onto the gash, (She was only doing it because Monkey was being too much of a baby to do it himself) Mantis of all people walked in through the door and saw the image of Monkey sitting at the beginning of the Training Hall, legs apart with Tigress in in front of him with her paw on the inside of his thigh ... _oh crap_. She had known EXACTLY what conclusion Mantis had jumped to and it had taken MONTHS for them to finally convince everyone that nothing was going on – she hadn't properly sparred with Monkey again to this day.

But now the temptation was back again; high and strong. Hell, after what had gone down on the court earlier she'd rather have willingly admitted back then that the simian _was_ her lover instead of having to explain to the others what the cause was for her outburst today.

She had been sitting on her bed for the last half hour attempting to clear her mind by meditating … it wasn't working particularly well. She was aware that meditating under the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom or beside the moon pool was the best place for it to work properly for her but the tiger wasn't sure if she was ever going to leave her room again. What in the hell was she going to say to the rest of them when she saw them next?

She could only imagine just how relentless she'd been on the Ironwood Tree – judging by the looks on her comrades when they had finally pulled her back to the present day and what they had said to her, she must have really been going at it … and that frightened her.

What if something like this happened again? What if it happened while she was sparring one of the Five or Shifu? Going by the sad truth that she had nearly taken out Crane and Viper _without_ falling into some kind of twisted daydream, she didn't dare to think what would've become of them if she _had_.

Tigress growled quietly; feeling the anger, pain and the growing shame of her own failure at keeping all of this in check the last couple of days build up inside her stomach, making her feel annoyingly nauseous … _Oh come on!_ One of her little voices in her head – the one she liked – piped up once again, _fifteen bloody years of barely giving this guy a single thought and now because of one teeny little vision from a crazy old turtle that probably was just a crazy nightmare of his own, you're mind has shot to insanity like a bat outta hell. Take a chill pill girl!_

 _ **You know you can't forget it … no matter what you do or where you go, it'll still be there in the back of your mind. Waiting … lurking … listening …**_

The striped feline sighed; it was like having Yin on one shoulder and Yang on the other. Yang was telling her to get it together and move on; everything having happened twenty long years ago and her having pretty much forgotten about it for three quarters of it, while Yin was telling – or rather forcing – her to relive the past as if to make sure she knew that despite having not thought about it in so long she would never truly forget it … or to be specific, who was in it. And as much as she hated it … Yin was correct.

She hadn't forgotten it. The last couple of days had been proof of that. Ever since Master Shifu had come back to her and the rest of the Five and told them about Master Oogway's vision. The moment he had mention the snow leopard's name; that was when it more or less started … that's when the rusted wheels in that dark corner started turning again, that's when Yin bought to life the palanquin containing her own personal Pandora's box that was never meant to be open again and returned it to the surface of her mind. She knew she had always been aware of it and she had unlocked that box when she'd told the Panda about Tai Lung's past – the story everyone knew anyway … and if she kept up the behaviour of today, the other story … the _true_ one, would be revealed. That was a given.

Tigress shook her head. This couldn't continue; the memories, the behaviour, the fighting; it all to stop – For both her sake as well the rest of the Five's; it had gone far enough.

"Damn you … bastard …"

Getting up off her bed she began to pace her room's small width, thinking about how to go about making it stop; how to squish it all back into the box and return it to its assigned seat in the back corner of her mind. Meditation obviously didn't seem to be working, but again, she wasn't in the best place for that to work for her; her room had never been a place she had gone to during the day unless absolutely necessary; to change for dinner if her clothes were too sweaty or to grab something she'd forgotten for the day's training (this happened very rarely) or for circumstances like right now … and the only other time this had happened was, again, that accident with Monkey – though she had been purely angry at Mantis that time. This time it was a lot of emotions; none of them good.

Speaking of changing for dinner, Tigress stopped pacing and looked out her window at the tips of the juniper bushes in front of a backdrop of sky which was now blood red; only half an hour away, give or take, from sun down (judging by the fact of no clouds, it would be a starlit night, like black jade shining under the sun … she liked these kinds of nights; quiet, soft, simple … beautiful) and decided that now may be a good a time as any to replace her clothes with something a little cleaner for dinner; her clothes weren't that bad at all, but since she was in here she thought she may as well.

Truthfully she wasn't hungry in the slightest and leaving her room – despite her dislike for going in there until late – was currently the last thing on earth she wanted to do. But sooner or later she was going to have to face her friends … and even if she didn't, the chances of them (or Viper at least) coming to her – if not to ask her again what the hell was going on earlier then to tell her it was time for dinner – were relatively high on the margin.

Walking over to her small set of drawers, she opened up the first drawer of three and rummaged through her selected vests. She only had five in total; two of which were the same colour and the other three, though a different colour were all identical in size and shape; each had the signature vine pattern on them and the black trim. There were two reds; one of which she had on (and nearly always wore as they were her favourites), a green one, a blue one and a silver one (Though the silver one she never wore except at the winter festival which was held once a year.)

Deciding on the green one; Tigress pulled it out swiftly … perhaps a little too swiftly as one of the gold clasps of the vest snagged on the corner of the drawer as she drew it out and lurched the whole thing forward. Luckily, she caught it and propped it back into place before the whole thing came toppling over but couldn't stop her necklace that she sometimes wore; with a pendant of Yin and Yang, falling off the top of the drawer and rolling away under her bed, stopping when it came into contact with something solid.

Sighing, the feline closed her drawer and after placing her green vest on top of her bed, she knelt down to retrieve her necklace from under it. But as she reached under to grab it, her eyes rested on what had stopped the necklace in its rolling path and her paw froze around the pendant.

It was a wooden chest; just small enough to fit under her bed comfortably. It was small; about as big as one of the small cupboards in the kitchen; bigger than trinket size, but not big enough to be a hiding place for anyone in a game of hide-and-seek (well, maybe with exception of Mantis). It had the most exquisite image of a golden dragon that weaved around it and the top was decorated in a golden vine pattern similar to the pattern on her vests.

Tigress looked at it; telling herself harshly to simply get the necklace and focus on her original plan of changing for dinner, but something was stopping her body from complying with that order. _No. Don't do it. Just get the necklace and go. That chest hasn't been opened in ages and you really don't need to open it now. You know what you'll find and what will happen if you do … it'll be like the curse of Pandora's Box for you._

But, as though the voice had told her that it was fine and to go right ahead; Tigress placed both paws gently around the little chest and dragged it slowly out from under her bed.

A relatively thick coating of dust blanketed it nicely – evidence that it hadn't been touched in some time. Tigress had bought it from a now closed down shop in the Valley when she was in her early teens; when the contents that it now kept that she had originally hidden under the one dress she had in her bottom drawer ran a high risk of being found. Lifting it up off of the ground, she blew the dust off of it so that it swirled around in a large cloud the air before seemingly dissolving into nothing. After brushing a paw gently across its vine-patterned lid, she filled her lungs to the brim with air and (knowing deep down she was going to full on regret this later) she opened up the lid slowly, hearing the hinges connecting lid to chest creak loudly as she did so.

A small assortment of personal items lay inside it. There were the golden dominoes that Shifu had first taught her discipline with all those years ago at Bao Gu and again after he had adopted her – one domino of which had a crack down the middle of it from where it had snapped and had been glued back together again. There were only five of them, including the cracked one but they were precious to her for more reasons than one.

Sitting beside the stack of dominoes, there was a ring carved out of black jade complete with a shiny blue sapphire and a small diary that had both been left with her in the folds of the thin blanket that she had had wrapped around her little body outside Bao Gu; the only two things her mother and father had possibly left her before leaving her there … the things that held the tiniest slither of hope that her parents had not abandoned her and might have loved her and the choice to leave her had been against their will but the choice to keep her had been sadly beyond their reach. The diary had been blank – still was now; Tigress hoped they had left it there for her to write in and record important times of her life as a cub so one day when they tried to find her again, she could tell them all about it … but she never found a quill and ink that would work on the parchment in the orphanage, and by the time she had, she didn't even know where to begin, so it stayed blank … and besides, her parents had never come back for her anyway.

The blanket she had been found in was also in the chest. It was a faded pink colour now … well, even more faded, she should say (and the only pink thing she owned). It had already been slightly worn when Mrs Yángmáo; the sheep caretaker, had found her on Bao Gu's doorstep. The fabric was now even thinner with age and the sides of it were frayed to a small extent, but it was still soft to touch – folded up into a neat square in the corner of the chest; and sitting on top of it was …

Tigress felt her stomach turn slowly as she looked with a mix of despair and sadness at the little item sitting on top on the aged blanket. She could count on both of her paws the number of times she had opened up this chest in the last decade and all of those times it had been to grab the dominoes to use as an occasional form of meditation that worked for her and she had always overlooked this object every time …

Not this time.

Taking a deep breath as though she was about to battle a whole army of foes all by herself, the feline reached both paws into the chest … and picked up the small thing; a little battered and slightly covered in dust and dirt but still soft and oddly comforting as she lifted it out of the chest and held it firmly in her lap; the vision of how she had come to own it came creeping into her mind … and oddly, while Tigress wanted to fight it … she didn't …

* * *

 _It had been as though a ghost floated past her as something small and soft brushed against her cheek as it was slipped under the covers beside her in bed. It was such a light touch – like that of a feather – that it shouldn't have been enough to wake her up – again … but it did._

 _Judging by the weight of this new establishment as it was nestled in the crook of her neck, it was something a little heavier and larger than a feather, but even in the dim moonlight she couldn't properly see what it was – her eyes were still reasonably red and swollen thanks to uncontrollably crying her eyes out earlier that night as a result of that awful nightmare. Thank goodness Tai Lung had heard her tossing and had come and woken her up._

 _It wasn't the first time she had had a nightmare of that kind of nature. Plenty of nightmares similar to this one had happened a lot at Bao Gu; varying from her parents leaving her on the orphanages doorstep saying that she was the biggest mistake of their life to the orphanage closing down with her still unwanted and residing in her prison-like bedroom … but the worst dreams she had ever had at Bao Gu were the ones where she was adopted or her parents had come back for her. Not because she didn't like them; heavens knew she loved those dreams … it was the harsh reality of waking up to finding that they were just dreams and that she was still an abandoned, unwanted orphan, feared by everyone else who lived there._

 _The only thing that had happened differently with this nightmare was someone had actually come to her aid and pulled her out of it. Someone had heard her, had found her, had woken her up, had held her, comforted her and told her it was okay …_

 _And this someone – as she saw, surprisingly even with swollen eyes, his spotty tail – had just disappeared around her bedroom door and was currently walking back down the corridor._

 _Tigress sat up and clasped her paws slowly around the soft item and picked it up; holding it up to the moonlight shining through her window (judging by where the moon was, it was safe to say there was about an hour give or take from First Light) to see what it was._

 _In her paws she held a small, green, stuffed turtle. It's four stumpy legs flopped side to side; dangling from its body and the shell was patterned in a darker shade of green, whereas the neck, head and legs were a shade of what – in the dim light – looked like it could be a lime green colour, it's dark eyes were small little buttons and it wore a smile made from a single thread. It was cute and soft and as the cub brought it in closer to her; to hold it tight against her chest; it made her feel warm and safe._

 _She had only just finished her silent question in her head of_ how did this even get here _before realizing (with a soft slap on her forehead with stupidity) that the answer had just left her bedroom two minutes ago. Getting up off her bed, still holding tightly onto the turtle she scampered to her doorway and down the corridor, hearing the snow leopard's receding footsteps beneath her as he made his way down – she assumed – to the place he slept, which was obviously the senior's dormitory. Master Shifu had told her how the bunkhouse worked … not that he said there was anyone else in there besides herself (She had to wonder why Shifu hadn't actually introduced her to Tai Lung; even if she hadn't constantly heard his bantering on the Training Hall, she was sure she would've been bound to meet him at some point. They both lived there for goodness sake)._

 _All that however, was driven from her mind as she pattered down the stairs after the older feline; panting slightly as she caught up with him just as he had reached the senior's corridor._

 _"Hey … wait…" she said between pants as she stopped on the last step, a few meters away from him._

 _Tai Lung stopped and turned with first a look of surprise that turned into a mix of concern and a hint of curiosity as he saw her. "Tigress?" He started towards her "did I wake you?"_

 _"Errr" Truthfully yes, she supposed, but she wasn't complaining … much. She was a little tired, but she was putting that on the unchecked crying she had done earlier that night._

 _"Sort of … but I don't mind." She added quickly as the snow leopard visibly winced uncomfortably at that, "I just wanted to ask … was it you who gave me this?" She held up the turtle._

 _Tai Lung rubbed the back of his neck and Tigress swore she saw his cheek fur redden ever so slightly as he looked to the side, then at floor, "Umm … yeah … I did. I umm … it … he's … uhh…"_

 _Tigress felt her eyes widen in surprise. Was he … stuttering? She found herself having to bite back a giggle – though considering the fact Tai Lung had found her own stuttering utterly hilarious a few weeks ago, she didn't know why she wasn't giving in to laughing now, this was delicious karma right here._

 _"Is he … yours?" She asked with a small smirk._

 _The snow leopard rolled his eyes; looking a little defeated "Yeah … he's mine … or was mine."_

 _"Was?" She asked a little too sweetly, taking a step towards him … forgetting that she was still a step above the main floor; losing her balance, she stumbled forward, nearly falling face first onto the wooden panels. But two strong, rosette studded arms stopped her before she could. Tigress felt her own face redden a little before shaking her head and looking up to meet the snow leopards gaze._

 _Tai Lung offered her a smirk of his own and, after setting her back on her feet, coaxed her to follow him, "Come on."_

 _Following him quietly, feeling curious and maybe a little confused; Tigress found herself clutching the little turtle even more tightly to her chest as she shadowed him down the corridor; it was identical to the children's dormitory two stories above. She followed him to the last door on the right of the corridor. Following Tai Lung inside what was obviously his room, she saw, from the light of a candle, that it was made up similar to that of her own bedroom; a bed across from the door, a chest of drawers on which the candle sat that was a little bit bigger than hers against the wall on the left – the bottom drawer was open slightly and had looked like it had been recently rummaged through, as if the older feline had been looking for something._

 _Walking over to the drawer, Tai Lung closed it slowly. "When I was a cub … a little younger than you, I also used to have nightmares; it was more just the one. And I used to wake up in a similar nature to you in the night … only I had to deal with it myself back then; Shifu hasn't exactly changed much in the comforting side of things … that and I don't think he heard me either, heh …"_

 _Tigress did find that a little strange. You'd think with the size of those ears he could hear a fly cough ninety miles away. She stood in the center of Tai Lung' room, listening as the snow leopard continued._

 _"But Master Oogway heard me one night and he gave me the turtle the next morning. I didn't have a clue where he got it from; I never actually asked, I suppose he bought it from the market … though when I was a cub I thought he might have conjured it up with that staff of his … anyway, after that the turtle kept that nightmare I had away … I carried him everywhere until I was around nine I think, when I decided I didn't need him anymore. So he's been sitting in the bottom drawer ever since … but now … it seems like he's needed again, for someone else."_

 _Tigress looked down at the turtle she still had firmly locked in her paws. She drew it in closer; hugging it against her body, feeling it's soft material on her forearms as she did. She looked back up the older feline "I'll give him back soon."_

 _Tai Lung shook his head with a small chuckle "Keep him. You need him more than I do. Besides …" He moved from where he'd been leaning against the wooden frame of the wall and walked over to her "I'm a bit passed the age of needing stuffed toys … I'd forgotten about him until tonight."_

 _The little feline looked back at the small floppy toy and smiled "Thanks."_

 _"He'll help you little girl … oh cripes!"_

 _Tigress' head snapped back up from looking tenderly down at the turtle to the snow leopard. "What?"_

 _Seeing that he wasn't looking at her, Tigress followed his gaze to his window which, she was startled to see, had begun to change from the colour of black jade to a dark pink-ish colour, signifying the signs of First Light, her eyes widened._

 _"You have to go Tigress." Tai Lung's voice had a core of urgency to it "Master Shifu will be here before long, I doubt you'll want to be here when he does." He ruffled her head gently._

 _Tigress nodded, knowing full well that if Shifu caught her here she probably wouldn't have a head much longer. She turned and made her way out of the felines room, still hugging the turtle tightly, "Well … good night … err I mean … morning … and thanks again Tai."_

 _Just as she exited the door into the corridor, one last question came into her head. Turning around back to the snow leopard she asked quietly "Hey Tai … does the turtle … umm … have a name?"_

 _Tai Lung chuckled again "I called him Oogoo" …_

* * *

Tigress zoned back to the back to the present feeling more troubled then anything. Her paws still held firmly onto the turtle … 'Oogoo' … which the last time she even gave him a second glance was when she had moved all her secret possessions from her bottom drawer to the chest – it was for reasons like the memory as to why she tried not to give him too much thought.

The bunkhouse had changed in the last twenty years. Tigress learnt not too long after she became Shifu's sole student that the bunkhouse had originally been for the students of Master Shifu's generation – there had apparently been quite a few, including the famous Master Ox and Master Croc for a short while. Master Shifu was the only one who remained here afterwards, and after his time as a student came to a close, so did the number of students. By the time Tai Lung had been found on the doorstep; the Jade Palace was empty aside from Shifu, Oogway and the servants.

Of the three sets of dormitories that were there, only two sets remained now. The top set which had been the children's dorm had been removed when Tigress was fourteen, the middle dorm was now the bunk of the Furious Five's (and at the moment also the panda's) and had been that way since the day the Five were formed; a month short of Tigress' sixteenth birthday, and the bottom set was now used as a storage unit … and no one aside from Oogway, Shifu and Tigress knew that that was where Tai Lung's old room still was.

Tigress didn't know what had become of the snow leopard's old room. Whether Shifu had left it as it was or had stripped it down entirely or had filled it to the brim with old training equipment and junk that was no longer used, she could only guess, and while the majority of her didn't exactly care, some part of her was curious to know. But after that horrible, fateful day twenty years ago, Shifu had forbidden anyone from going into that room, or even into the corridor which lead to that room. If anyone needed anyone from down below, it was Shifu who would get it for them; he never let anyone else down there, and that included Tigress.

Tigress snarled softly. This couldn't continue. Whoever Tai Lung had been when she was a cub was not who he was now. The kind, strong, slightly sassy snow leopard wasn't there anymore; hadn't been for years, instead it had been replaced with something much different. Cold. Harsh. Stiff… possibly even a smidge of … evil, in there too; that she was sure of.

How was she sure of that?

Because of the one other thing that she had in the chest; the old, delicate item which had been sitting next to the turtle and the thing that was probably part of the center of her torment. Even though she had only used it once; the memory behind it had crushed her heart. It was also what had finally hardened it and had built up her wall from the others and had created the fierce façade that she hid behind for the sake of herself, Shifu and the Five.

Placing the stuffed turtle back into the box, she looked at the item sitting next to it, baring her fangs viciously before sharply snatching it up and after a small tamper, looked at it properly. She had kept this to remind her never to go back; to not openly feel what she had as a cub, to keep hidden away her slither of hope – that she couldn't drown out – that the snow leopard who had cared about her as a child was still out there somewhere, even though all arrows pointed in the complete opposite direction with what was in front of her and what it's path had lead to.

"Tigress?"

The word was said just louder than a whisper but from the way the tiger nearly shed herself of her stripy pelt from the height she jumped, one might have thought it was screamed. The leader of the Furious Five gathered the item back up as quickly as what she could manage without breaking it and stuffed it back into her chest just as her bedroom door opened. Kicking the chest hastily back under her bed, Tigress turned to see Crane standing in her doorway.

"What?" She snapped at the avian; not caring at that moment about the fact he didn't deserve such an angry greeting.

If he was bothered by it, he didn't show it … much. Crane simply rubbed the back of his long, slender neck and looked at her with soft eyes "Umm … Dinner's up … uhh, we've gone for something new tonight. Smells great!" He added in a voice that was obviously an attempt to cheer the feline up. She supposed to a degree it worked … a little … not really… "And you know since, you haven't had anything to eat today save for a peach and half an apple. We um … thought you'd better join us … get something into your system …"

The way he said the last part gave Tigress the impression that Crane and the rest of them had done a 'draw straws' type of thing to decide who was going to come and get her. To some extent she didn't blame them, to another she found it mildly amusing, but she simply gave her comrade a sharp nod before getting up, throwing her forgotten green vest back into her drawer and walking through her door and shutting it swiftly behind her before turning to the avian, forcing her head to think only of dinner and what they could be eating that was different from the normal tofu. _If it's another attempt at that chilli soup Mantis tried to cook that almost burned our taste buds off and roasted us all from the inside out then so help me…_

"After you" she said to Crane but in a very slightly lighter tone of voice.

* * *

The leader of the Furious Five had been quick. But Cranes eyesight had been a split second quicker. The bird hadn't been completely happy at first about the fact that the rest of them had voted him out to get Tigress but as she walked behind him as he lead the way back to the kitchen where he was certain she'd either snarl or look utterly bewildered, he was happier now that he had been chosen.

Monkey or Mantis wouldn't have seen anything and Viper would've been too worried or too angry at Tigress to pay much attention.

But while Crane didn't see what it contained … he had seen the old, yellowed-with-age scroll that Tigress had been looking at before she had hidden it away into that chest as he opened up her door, and somehow, he had a sneaky yet certain suspicion that it had nothing to do with learning a new move of Kung Fu…

* * *

The juicy gossip about the Dragon Warrior that was happening inside the kitchen of the inn had sparked up a massive interest to the snow leopard who had now made himself rather comfortable underneath the window to listen in. He knew he shouldn't really be here; he needed to rest if he ever wanted to get the Dragon Scroll and face Shifu and Oogway and possibly the Furious Five – including Tigress. He didn't doubt for a second that they would move the Jade Mountain if it meant stopping him, but the conversation going down on the other side of the wall was just getting too good.

"The Dragon Warrior? Master Oogway has chosen?" a deep gruff voice asked as the sound of a heavy door shut from inside.

Tai Lung couldn't make out who was saying what. The only voice he knew for certain was the French accented one that belonged to the skunk. He stayed hidden beneath the window, deciding that finding out who was speaking what line wasn't worth the risk of being caught should anyone inside just happen to look up.

"Oui, apparently Master Oogway chose ze ozzer day. It has been ze talk of ze town since yesterday morning. Word does travel quick no?"

"Dunno much about th' Dragon Warrior." Another voice piped up that sounded incredibly slack and laid back – almost as if he landed a job like this by pure luck "Only know tha' ya supposed ta get some sor'a scroll"

"Oui, ze Dragon Scroll. You are seriously telling me you do not know?"

"Well truthfully Monique, you are the only one that gets the odd day off in here. You have a chance to hear about these sorts of things." Gruff Voice retorted.

"And you know perfectly well zat if I could change zat zen I would but I cannot." Monique shot back with a tone laced with iron as if she heard this many a time prior "Anyhow I still imagined zat you would have heard from … somewhere."

"Well since we haven't maybe you'd like to enlighten us?" a very rich, first-class sounding voice rang out.

"Well…"

Tai Lung held his breath, waiting for her to say the tiger's name, waiting for her to confirm it was indeed Tigress…

"…I do not know who he is or what animal he is, but apparently he made ze most spectacular entrance into ze Jade Palace. He was a gift sent from ze gods. My parents were saying zat he literally fell out of ze sky on a ball of **fire!** Fireworks exploding up ze sky, lights dazzling; zey heard zat he landed right in front of ze Furious Five – right in front of Master Tigress herself; everyone who was zere was in complete shock, zey said he is a warrior of black and white, unlike nozzing ze world has ever seen!"

Tai Lung felt a course of emotions run through him in the dead silence – assumedly everyone else's jaw was hanging open in wonder – that followed the skunk's words; relief, curiosity, anger, concern, determination surged through him all at once. So it wasn't Tigress …or any of the Five. He felt the corners of his muzzle twitch at the thought that the tiger's cunning scheme had not worked – it was almost a kind of comfort to him to know that.

"Zey said zat apparently he was strong enough to break ze palanquin carrying him to ze Jade Palace and zat zere were cheers and celebration for miles once zey all got over ze shock of his impressive plight to earth from ze gods."

The snow leopard found himself bearing a cold grin on his muzzle with what the skunk had said. He still didn't believe that whoever this was that had been chosen was truly the Dragon Warrior (that title still truly belonged to him, no questions asked) but this opponent, from the way he was described, was definitely going to give him a run for his money – to some extent at least.

"Wai' 'ang on a mo" the snow leopard nearly groaned in annoyance as Slack Voice spoke again, sounding like he was thinking, which, judging by his voice, didn't sound like something he did very often, "Dragon Warrior … Dragon Scroll … Tha' does ring a bell kinda … Wasn't tha' the thing ol' whatsizname was gonna ge' years ago an' then didn't?"

"Oui, Tai Lung; Master Shifu's son, correct! Glad to hear you know somezing…"

Tai Lung would have chuckled at the thought of what they would all do if they found out that 'Whatsizname' was currently sitting flat against the wall underneath the window listening in to what they were saying, but what Monique had said made the chuckle die in his throat and the grin he had got wiped clean off along with it to form a scowl. _Master Shifu's son_ … now there was a title he had neither heard nor given himself the longest of whiles … and probably never would again. He was never going to admit it; not to anyone, not now, not ever, but hearing those words had ripped a hole in his heart – not saying anyone believed he still had one to be ripped. He was about to growl away the unwanted emotion of sadness before Monique spoke up again and what she said nearly made him choke it into a pitiful whimper.

"I almost feel sorry for him…" _She cannot be talking about me!_

"You **cannot** be talking about Tai Lung!" First-Class Voice asked, sounding very much like the snow leopard felt; disbelieving and astounded.

"I said almost … I mean you all know _his_ story; he trained for years to become ze Dragon Warrior, to get ze Dragon Scroll, he worked his whole life for zat. I know I'd be a little annoyed if I'd worked my butt off for somezing zat ended up being denied me."

 _I **AM** the Dragon Warrior! Regardless of whom it was that that bloody tortoise chose. He didn't have a clue what he was on about when he shook his head to Shifu. And Tigress, if she hadn't … ugh!_

"If I recall correctly that did almost happen to you; you nearly ended up being a coat-check girl." Gruff Voice said quietly. "But … you didn't! So that's good." He added very quickly. Tai Lung could only assume by how abruptly upbeat his voice changed that if looks could kill, Gruff Voice would probably be dead by now.

"Damn right I didn't! I am ze toughest cook in zis kitchen, Gē, and don't you forget it!" _If tones of voices could also stop the heart…_

"Bu' even if tha' did 'appen, Gē is righ', you wouldn't 'ave done wha' 'e did. Send the whole blinkin village up in flames an' smoke an' kill tonnes of innocen' people just coz you don't ge' wha' ya wanted."

"Again … I said 'almost'. I do not deny zat zere is no excuse for he did and I agree wiz what you have said, but to some extent, I understand where ze anger came from."

The very convict she was talking about was currently at loss of what to think; it was the first time he'd ever heard anyone say that about him since that day. Vachir and the rest of the Anvil of Heaven certainly hadn't showed him any sort of understanding in Chorh-Gom; and it wasn't like he'd had very many visitors there either … though if he had he didn't doubt he probably would've just told them to piss off.

"Well regardless Monique, everything that man did was wrong and he deser -"

"What's everyone talking about? What did I miss?" A new voice joined the group as the sound of a door opened followed by the sound of scurrying feet that Tai Lung had to assume was the otter, he had a rather scrawny voice; and spoke like he'd had way too much sugar beforehand.

"Oh hello Miàn, Monique was just telling us that the Dragon Warrior finally got chosen in the Valley of Peace the other day…" By the time Gruff Voice – or Gē as they had called him – had finished that sentence he sounded almost as if he fully regretted opening his mouth, and a second later, after a loud audible groan from Monique and what sounded like a palm to the forehead from somewhere else in the kitchen, Tai Lung found out why.

"Really? They did? Do tell! What is he? Who is he? Is it a he? Could be a she. Is it a she? Is it Tigress? Is it one of the Five? Was it cool? Dramatic? Boring? Is it …? Was it …?… Dragon Scroll … Master Oogway …"

 _Holy hell … did I miss the bit where they made the challenge of 'how many words can fly out of someone's gob in two seconds'?_

Tai Lung wasn't even in the room and he felt like his ears were being chewed off; the last word he caught was 'Shifu' before he lost track of what was being said. The otter was talking as though the 'mute switch' on him broke and the 'talking switch' had become stuck on the fastest level … and it was really beginning to hurt the snow leopards head. _I think that's my queue to leave._

"Heck… can that guy talk any faster?" he growled out loud quietly and absentmindedly.

"Yeah, he can."

It was as though Tai Lung had been sitting on a burning firecracker that whole time and it had just blown up underneath him from how high he jumped; hitting his head humiliatingly hard on the window ledge above him in the process. He had to silently thank whoever was listening for the otter's loud continuing babbling that was still happening inside the kitchen that drowned out the sound of his head making contact with the brick hard enough that had it been anyone else, it probably would've knocked them out cold.

Thanks to Master Shifu training him into oblivion twenty years ago plus the twenty years of treatment he received from Vachir and the Anvil of Heaven, it didn't exactly hurt as such, but it did make the convict wince (though he had a hunch that it may have been because that otter's blizzard of words had started to hurt his head prior to that as well).

He looked slowly down to the right with the remainder of a scowl still on his muzzle, where that voice had come from. It had belonged to someone reasonably young and obviously a female. Sitting no more than a mere three meters away from him, facing the wall was a young peahen girl; the mid-evening's moonlight giving enough light to see her reasonably clearly.

"I mean, Miàn has always been a fast talker; kinda fits with the way he scurries around like the world is ending I guess. But you think that's fast? Ya should have heard him when they were telling the story of Master Ox the other week … whoo boy, I can count the number of times he took a breath in that whole _night_ on one foot … and as you can see" – she wiggled one little foot out in front of her – "I only have three toes."

"What the … Where the hell did you come from?"

Though his snarly tone to her was intimidating, a hint of surprise was also audible in his voice at the fact that she didn't seem the least bit afraid of him despite it was obvious that she could clearly see what he was if she didn't know exactly who he was. She didn't look much older than twelve; thirteen at the very most, and in height she would make it up to his upper thigh. She was pure white; that was easy to see in the moonlight and her little tail feathers were preened to perfection and lay out behind her, just long enough that the tips of her pearly feathers trailed along the ground like a small silken train of a dress. For almost a young teen (he assumed), he admitted she did look beautiful.

The peahen giggled quietly "Oh, I've been here a while. I always come here; the chefs here tell the most intriguing stories and have the most amusing conversations. Just the other night they were talking of Master Rhino's legendary Cloud Hammer and were all coming up with their own stories as to how it is as legendary as what it is now. Monique had the idea that Master Rhino created it himself and that it can only be wielded by he and no one else; not even the strongest man on earth could move it even if he tried with all his might. That was a pretty interesting theory I must say."

Tai Lung was now completely stumped though he didn't show it. This young girl seemed to not care in the slightest that she was currently well within harms reach of a frickin snow leopard who could easily swipe her out with a mere flick of one strong paw. He decided to make sure she knew this by growling low and menacingly "You shouldn't be sitting here… you shouldn't be _out_ here. You never know who you might encounter or what they could do."

The peahen looked at him skeptically "Well, I'm not normally _here_. I'm normally over _there_ " – she pointed one wing over to where he was sitting – "Coz where your sitting is … kinda my spot, but you're there so … I'm here."

 _What a sassy little bitch…_ the snow leopard worked to stop his eyebrows rising in shock, _she's got guts I'll give her that._

The young girl rolled her eyes with a small smirk "Seriously no one ever comes out here and no one has ever been harmed. Yin Huāpíng is as quiet and as dead as you're ever going to find a village…" she shook her small feathered head almost sadly "makes me wonder why mother and father are so over-protective of me. I mean I know that I'm … ugh, never mind."

She gestured one wing towards the inn "This is the most freedom that I really get. My window is so easy to get out of; a couple of pillows bunched underneath the covers of my bed take's care of my parents. I've been doing this for months now and they still don't know."

 _Now that rings a bell … wonder why that sounds so familiar…_ the sarcasm dripping off the snow leopards thought was enough he could almost taste it on his tongue. The images of Shifu and Tigress threatened to break the surface of his thoughts and he found himself focusing directly on the peahen girl to drown them both out.

But what she said next only made one of the images even clearer…

"I don't have much of a clue on what on earth Monique was on about tonight though. What's a Dragon Warrior? What's a Dragon Scroll?"

Those two questions had been asked to him before. Long ago, by the very girl whom the peahen reminded him of somewhat. The young peahen he admitted had more of an attitude and sassiness than her but the peahens grace, personality and … beauty, had been what reminded him of Tigress. Despite a last futile attempt to focus on the vague amusement and slight confusion he had that despite how old the Peahen looked, she didn't know about the Dragon Warrior or the Dragon Scroll, the memory of the time the tiger cub had asked those very questions that the peahen girl had asked just now, came flooding into his head, painting the vision of the courtyard and the Ironwood tree's outside the Jade Palace across his mind in one clean stroke.

* * *

 _"I'm surprised it actually hurt when I punched the tree. My strength at Bao Gu broke holes in every single wooden door in the orphanage and shredded my room to ribbons."_

 _"Well … wood is easy to punch through with strength like yours and mine little girl. You saw what I could do to the Wooden Warriors." (He had had to apologize that day when he had sent the wood flying in all directions and one piece very nearly took the cub's eye out). "Plus, not only has Master Shifu helped you control that strength of yours but these trees are made of wood that is much more solid than the plain panels; which is why I train on them when I don't want something I'm fighting against to end up in kindling … or rubble. There is a reason they're called Ironwood, and I'm ready to bet it's the first thing you've punched that hasn't crumbled to dust on the first go; ya know, judging by the fact that it sounded like a bomb went off on contact."_

 _It really had sounded like a bomb had exploded when her paw hit the Ironwood Tree the first time earlier that day, which both shocked and impressed the snow leopard as the sound wasn't too far off the noise he could make from his own punches on the trunks. It had been an hour or so since then and the tiger cub had happily found a place off to the left of the tree, sitting with her knee's drawn up watching him perform a series of reverse Roundhouse Kicks before executing the Leopard Strike to finish._

 _To some extent it felt good to fight for an audience of non-judgmental eyes; even if it was only one pair watching him, the pair that was always filled with awe and wonder and on occasion when he really outdid himself, concern. It felt almost as good as training alone as he often did after sunset when no one was there to correct him or tell him he blotched up (not saying he did mess up of course)._

 _Backing up from the tree and taking a couple of deep breaths, he glanced at her. "You want to have another go Tigress?"_

 _"Uhh … yeah okay."_

 _He knew it was probably unwise to let her do this, for more reasons than one. He knew it was definitely getting down to business with three weeks to go before the day he became the Dragon Warrior, so the more focused and harder he trained himself the better. That and training Tigress on the Ironwood trees first off instead of leaving it to Master Shifu to start her off on the adversary/the training dummy later on may not be the best idea either – She could possibly send it flying through the wall. Then again, if Master Shifu had taught her how to control that strength then maybe she'd be okay._

 _Whack!_

 _"You're right these trees are solid …ouch."_

 _Tigress was rubbing her knuckles again from punching it – lighter this time, so it didn't give off quite a bang. Tai Lung couldn't help the smirk spreading across his muzzle at thinking that by the time this day was out she would be used to the steeled trunks, when Shifu finally started her on the training dummy, she was probably going to fall asleep with boredom – another con to this idea._

 _"You'll get used to it little girl." He said chuckling "Keep at it. Remember to bend your front leg."_

 _She went at it a few more times; rubbing her knuckles lesser and lesser with each punch that was accompanied by little 'Heyyaah's'. She even attempted a Roundhouse Kick, which possibly would have been executed near flawlessly … if she hadn't misjudged the distance between herself and the trunk. Her foot missed the trunk entirely, turning into a very dodgy looking pirouette while hopping wildly around on one foot for a moment before falling flat on her stomach with her arms spread out like an eagle in flight._

 _The snow leopard couldn't remember a time prior where he had had to fight falling into a hysterical laughing fit as hard as what he was now. He met her golden eyes and asked with immense difficulty to keep himself from losing it to the laughter "You didn't tell me you were training for the ballet."_

 _Tigress lifted her head to look at him before lifting her leg up and pointing her toes as though that covered up her fail perfectly "Who would be teaching me that? Master Oogway?"_

 _"Well … he does often look like he's about to start leaping into an arabesque … especially when he's meditating on one foot …"_

 _That image did it. Both the felines collapsed in a fit of laughter on the ground. Tigress curled up into a ball holding onto her stomach while Tai Lung was on all fours clutching his own. It was some time before they both started to get their breath back and moved into sitting position with both of their backs resting against the tree, the sun peeking through the cloud scattered sky of the early afternoon and a gentle breeze blowing through the branches above them._

 _"Hey … Tai?"_

 _"Mm?"_

 _"Why have Master Shifu and Master Oogway been with you so much this week? I get that you're Shifu's student and all but they've been watching you like a hawk for five days straight. Why is that?"_

 _The snow leopard glanced at her puzzled expression before looking straight ahead; resisting the urge to puff his chest out with pride. "In three weeks I will become the Dragon Warrior, so Oogway and Shifu have been with me to observe my training and make sure I'm keeping up to speed. Gotta be ready for it you know."_

 _He half expected a 'wow' or a gasp of wonder from the cub, but when he looked back at her he only saw a look of confusion and the reply was definitely not one he expected, "What's a Dragon Warrior?"_

 _If it hadn't been for her honest, confused face, Tai Lung would've thought she was joking. Did she honestly not know what the Dragon Warrior was?_ Blimey Shifu; you could've at least updated her on that!

 _"A Dragon Warrior is … one of the greatest titles one can receive. It is one who can defeat any foe, battle any army of any number, he will bring peace, everywhere he goes, and to everyone he meets. The Dragon Warrior obtains limitless power and will be pretty much indestructible."_

 _The older feline felt a smile cross his muzzle at the thought. "Master Shifu has already told me that I am destined to become the Dragon Warrior, and that I pretty much already am, but to make it official, I need the Dragon Scroll which is what Master Oogway will present to me in three weeks."_

 _He watched his favourite emotion of awe and fascination cross Tigress' muzzle for the most part, but the moment he mentioned the Dragon Scroll it was almost back to square one with the confusion. "What's the Dragon Scroll? What's inside it?"_

 _Now Tai Lung did let out a disbelieving bark of laughter "You're telling me you haven't seen the Dragon Scroll? Cripes little girl how have you not seen it yet? It's the scroll that sits above the moon pool in between the teeth of the golden dragon on the ceiling in the Hall of Warriors."_

 _Tigress looked a little sad "I'm … not allowed in there alone. Not unless Master Shifu or Master Oogway is with me … I was there this morning … sitting beside the moon pool actually with Master Shifu. I didn't dare lose my focus on my discipline in case I accidentally snapped another domino again, so … I never looked up."_

 _To a great extent, Tai Lung understood that. He knew more than anyone else, the desire to want to please his father and earn his praise as well as Master Oogway's and how focused one could become with that desire in mind – that and of course the desire to not disappoint or anger them with failed attempts and straying off onto tangents that had nothing to do with what you were supposed to be doing. He did that a lot in his early days of training, and lord did Shifu claw that out of him fast._

 _"Well, the Dragon Scroll is what gives the limitless power. Legend says that you can hear a butterfly's wing beat, see light in the darkest cave, and can feel the universe in motion around you if you read it. Of course only the Dragon Warrior is allowed the right to read it; as declared by Oogway; but soon I will be granted it, then I will have the official title and be properly named the Dragon Warrior."_

 _While Tigress definitely did retain her look of awe at his words, she also looked thoughtful, as though something he had said wasn't quite correct or he had missed something out in the explanation. Finally she met his eyes and spoke quietly. "Well … even though that sounds amazing, and I'm glad that you're the one getting chosen; even if you weren't destined to be the Dragon Warrior and didn't receive the Dragon Scroll of limitless power. I'd still think you're a hero, coz you are pretty cool."_

 _Tai Lung didn't know whether he should be warmed or offended by her words. Even if he wasn't destined for it … who else was gonna get it; the pig that owned the vegetable shop in the market? (The image was both infuriating and amusing.) He could say Tigress but she was much too young yet and had barely started to learn kung Fu save for her few punches and a failed kick on the tree today, and no one else had mastered the thousand scrolls of Kung Fu like he had – almost (he had one scroll left)._

 _He didn't mention any of this out loud however and simply settled with a humble "Thanks little girl" before getting back on his feet and helping her back up onto her own "Time to get back to it I think."_

 _"I'll let you back onto it Tai; since you seem to need the training a lot now that I know what you're gonna get."_

 _He grinned._

 _And as he started combat with the Ironwood Tree, out of the corner of his eye, he could see her standing off the side, by the looks of it attempting to subtly mimic his moves he was performing. He smirked out of sight as he performed the Roundhouse Kick at a slightly closer distance than she had so his foot actually hit the trunk._

 _Even if he wasn't named the Dragon Warrior … goodness; what a ridiculous thought that was…_

* * *

"… say it's for the best so I just have to go with it."

Tai Lung zoned back to the wall he was sitting against; hearing the last few words of what the peahen girl was babbling to him. He didn't have a slightest clue what she was on about, and truthfully, he didn't particularly care. He was busy fuming inside; as much of a ridiculous thought it had been that he wasn't named (still was ridiculous), the worst bit was, it had actually come true. It was as though that cub had seen the whole thing coming, though again it could've been part of her plan too; to try and warn him what was coming, but then woo him with her words that she would still think he was 'pretty cool'.

 _Pretty cool … good grief …_

It was now well into night fall; it couldn't be more than an hour away from midnight. The noise in the kitchen had died down immensely, though whether that was because Miàn had finally managed to shut up or the fact that the window was now closed, the snow leopard wasn't too sure. Either way judging by how late it was, the chef's wouldn't be too far away from closing up if they weren't doing so already; but this, he cared about as much he cared about whatever the hell the peahen had been talking about while he was zoned out – again.

He had to stop doing that. Hell, what if something like this happened while he was trying to get the scroll, or when he was on the Thread of Hope. He couldn't afford to have that happen and go flying into the gorge below; not saying there would be anything to trigger that, but he never expected to be this bad with zoning into the past with certain moves and sentences that triggered it so he couldn't really expect anything.

"Sounds like they're done for the night" the peahen piped up in a cheery, conversational tone, "I guess that's my queue to head on off home too. Not saying of course that I want to go home. Not in the slightest, its way more interesting and mystical and peaceful out here for me and I also get to enjoy the small amount of freedom that I have before I'm back under the watchful eye of mother and father, though I can't say that I do blame them after what they've been through and of course it would be even harder I suppose knowing that I'm –"

"You talk almost as much as that bloody otter you know."

She gave him a very over-exaggerated gasp, "He speaks" she breathed with mocking amazement "I thought you'd gone into some sort of coma earlier from the way you froze up and just stared into space with your mouth hanging open for a good twenty minutes … it was tempting to place a rock in there, but I was afraid you might inhale it."

The snow leopard answered her with a venomous growl, which she barely batted an eyelid at. Underneath his irritation and frustration, he was slightly amused at how close she came to the mark, with her 'coma' theory; because in a way he supposed it was something like that.

The peahen looked up from him to the starlit sky and for a moment she almost looked as if she'd fallen into a coma herself "It's … so beautiful, isn't it?" she said quietly, the moonlight making her violet eyes sparkle, "I like nights like these; when the stars shine and the moon glows … the only thing missing is a gentle breeze really."

The convict wanted to make small talk about as much as he wanted to be back in Chorh-Gom prison, but silently he fully agreed with her, he did like these nights; even more so since it was the first starlit sky he'd seen in twenty years. Despite following her gaze up to the stars with distain in his features, he was slightly in awe and maybe a little grateful to be staring at it. He didn't let any of this show though and bared his fangs in a soft snarl "If there's anything special about it I don't see it … under 'a beautiful starlit sky', ugh … it's such a cliché."

Now the peahen finally did look at him with something other than her small sassy smile on her beak. Her brow furrowed and her eye twitched as she gave him the stink-eye, "geez man … who the hell stole your candy bar and ate it when you weren't looking?" She stood up and ruffled her feathers, shaking her head.

The snow leopard stood up as well, towering easily over her white figure "I know your type, girl. Happy-go-lucky, devil-may-care, life goes on despite the bad stuff. You have a lot to learn," he hissed.

"Maybe I do, but so do you." She said lightly "So I guess you've had a bad day" – _try years_ – "or even a bad week; but the good thing about it is that it doesn't last; tomorrow is always a new day, after that, the bad day only lasts only for as long as you hold on to it." She looked him in the eye; if she was disturbed by his intimidating stance, she didn't show it, "You speak as if you look for only the bad in life, but if you look for the bad and expect to find it, you surely will." She turned away with one last look at the sky and sighed "I'll leave now."

Tai Lung watched her little figure retreat away from him alongside the backs of the houses, half stunned at what she had said. For a girl who only looked to be entering her early teens she sure didn't speak like it … she reminded him a bit of Oogway with the way she put her words and that almost made him cringe madly.

The peahen looked back over her shoulder "My name is Mingzhu by the way; in case you were wondering." He saw her shrug "Probably not."

Whether she expected him to give his name back to her – which he definitely wasn't going to – or whether she was waiting for him to acknowledge that he'd heard her, he didn't know. But after a few moments, she turned and continued walking; eventually disappearing around one of the corners.

He stood there for a moment more, thinking … and trying to piece together all that she had said, before half realizing what he was doing and snarled. _Enough!_ Then, crouching low and rolling his eyes, he sprang back into the shadows in one graceful leap and took off in the opposite direction that Mingzhu had gone to find a place to rest for the remainder of the night; forcefully pushing everything she had said out of his mind.

 _You think you know more than you do, girl, and I too was once that naïve, but not anymore. They all betrayed me, and I will make them all pay and I will take what is mine. Nothing you can say will change that …_

* * *

 **A/N: A huge thanks my little sister for assisting me in quite a bit of this chapter. Now we've seen the second part of the memories from chapters 4 and 5 plus a little hint on clues on Tigress' parents which will definitely make an appearance later on.** _  
_

 **So many movie references in this chapter. The bit about Shifu being able to hear a fly cough ninety miles away was a reference to Dr Zuess' The Big Brag. The skunks name and the bit about her almost being a coat-check girl was a shout out to Around the World in 80 Days, but I still kept the Ratatouille concept in there as well, and her theory on the Cloud Hammer Legend was of course a shout out to Thor. and the quote a put in that Mingzhu says at the end of this chapter 'If you look for the bad and expect to find it, you surely will.' While I'm aware that that quote didn't exist back in that time, I knew the quote better from Pollyanna as opposed to who actually said it (Which was the great Abraham Lincoln) plus it fitted nicely. and yes I know the 'Mankind' bit of the quote is missing but I did purposefully take that out. Also I realized midway through writing Tigress's part of this chapter that I have seemingly based her off Doc Hudson from Cars, so I put the bit about the mysterious scroll reminding her never to go back as a reference there as well. You'll find out what it contains soon enough ;)**

 **A couple of new names here, Yángmáo means Wool,** **Gē means Beefy - Whether you want to view that as his full-name or his nickname is up to you but I see it more of a nickname (I didn't really bother too much as I don't intend to bring him back to the story), and Mingzhu means Bright Pearl. We haven't seen the last of her, and Monique will also make another appearance as well so you can remember them both.**

 **And to my reviewer Greenbirddy, I promise I have a better path for Tai and Tigress both. But there is still a wee way to go before I can create that path. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, but as I often say "A rainbow can't form without the storm." :)**


	7. Patience

**A/N: Ugh, I am SOOOO sorry about the time it took to update this, guys. This chapter was a complete and utter fudgeknuckle, did not want to play nice with me at all. I intended it to be a little longer than this, but decided against it due to having left it as long as what I have.**

* * *

How in the name of _Yuhuang_ had this happened? What on earth had gotten into the rest of them? The leader of the Furious Five had just managed to tolerate the others' slightly more friendly advances towards the Panda – even though for the most part, she didn't understand it whatsoever, though Viper, she somewhat could to a very small extent –but this? This was something that Tigress swore was out of even the serpent's range. Either the training today had been that insane that they had all lost their minds completely or some sort of crazy voodoo had gone down while she cooped herself up in her bedroom. Regardless, who the hell were these four imposters and what had they done with the rest of the Furious Five?

Tigress and Crane were rounding the last corner before the entrance of the small kitchen before she had heard the frustratingly familiar voice along with the – she had to silently admit quite delicious – smell of something cooking coming from inside. Still following Crane and half dreading what she would see, she entered the small kitchen behind him and stopped with a look of both disbelief and bewilderment at what she saw.

The rest of the Five, sitting at the table, with the panda of all damn animals standing at the stove, talking away merrily, while making … _you have got to be KIDDING_ … noodles.

Without acknowledging anyone in the room, she turned swiftly around on one foot and started making her way back towards her room. It was shocking enough that the rest of them were here like this when only a mere two days ago they were all infuriated with the idea of the panda being chosen as the Dragon Warrior and were finding immense satisfaction in making fun of his weight and not being able to see his toes let alone touch them (Tigress herself had been too furious to join in). But, regardless of what was the cause of their abrupt change of heart; if they were thinking that _she_ would want to be a part of that, they were very much mistaken. It both amused and largely confused her that they would think she wanted to sit there playing happy families, having cheery chit-chat with the panda, and the most confusing of the lot; eating his noodles!

Her ears picked up an annoyed groan – Mantis? – as she retreated from the kitchen and rolled her eyes heavily. What did they expect; her to just waltz right in and add on to their 'welcome in with open arms' advances? Were they honestly surprised?

She heard footsteps hurrying just as she was about the turn the first corner back towards the bunkhouse and felt a feathery wing plant itself firmly on her shoulder.

"Tigress-"

She turned around sharply, swiping Crane's wing away and cutting off his words; skewering his eyeballs with her signature glare, "Have you all gone crazy?!"

The bird didn't back down from her like he usually did. He simply folded in his wings and fixed a firm look at her "Look, whether you like it or not, the Panda is still sticking around. I and the rest of the Five don't agree with Master Oogway's decision anymore that you do, but we can't change what has happened, so we all thought that the least we can do is attempt to get to try to get to know him ... he's actually a pretty interesting guy, his father owns that noodle place everyone always raves about -"

Tigress cut him off sharply, though a small part of her found that piece of information slightly surprising; wasn't the one who owned that place a goose? "And you thought I would want to be a part of this?" She held up a paw as Crane made to reply. "Honestly, after what happened today, I'm not even sure why that panda still has his limbs attached to all that fat he lugs around; but what I'm really confused about is why you've decided to not only invite him to eat with us but also invite him to **cook** for us. What adds to it is why you thought I would want to join in."

Crane gave an irritated sigh "We didn't invite him. He was already in the kitchen when we got there and aside from a few bruises, he doesn't look all that bad." Crane looked thoughtful for a brief second then continued before Tigress could snap again. "He said he was cooking up the noodles and asked if we wanted any ... and with no food save for a couple of pieces of fruit today, none of us were exactly objecting his offer. Besides, you can't tell me it doesn't smell good. You're lying if you do."

Tigress scowled heavily at him but said nothing. The avian was right; she would be lying if she said the smell of those noodles wasn't delicious; but agreeing openly that this was the case would be the same as a compliment towards that panda and she hadn't forgotten her vow to never privilege him with a nice thing openly said from her mouth about him. Eating the noodles would also be just as bad; something that as mouth-watering as that smell was, she wouldn't have eaten anyway, even if it hadn't been the panda who was cooking them – her appetite still hadn't returned from its flight with the events that went down earlier, and the contents of her hidden chest had done nothing to help.

She rolled her eyes "Fine" she huffed out "I'll stay, only if it will shut you all up, but there is no way I'm touching anything that panda cooks."

"Oh for goodness sake Tigress he hasn't poisoned it! He wouldn't have tested it himself if he had …"

Tigress had to assume it was the glow of her glare that made Crane trail off. Either that or he had finally come to a conclusion that nothing he said was going to budge her and that he should at least be glad she was sticking around instead of letting her stubbornness fully get the better of her and go marching off to her room again. He sighed, "Are you at least going to eat something? I mean after today-"

"Don't worry about me. I'm not even that hungry." It wasn't actually a lie. The feline folded her arms firmly across her chest and softened her glare slightly, "Anyway you know I've never had a particularly ravenous appetite."

She could almost see Crane's brain bobbing about in his head as he seemingly tried and – irritatingly it seemed for him – failed to come up with a suitable response for that. She knew that he was well aware that out of the Furious Five, she ate the least; barely fitting down more than an average loaf of tofu at dinner; unlike Mantis who, even for his tiny size was able to fit down a meal fit for the emperor. _And considering todays training, I won't be surprised if there's anything left in the kitchen by the time tonight's over._

Still he did look quite bewildered at it all; she could only assume that it because of her outrageous display of action earlier that day that outdid anything the rest of the Five had presented and still **not** be hungry enough to eat a whole giant squid all on her own. By now her own bewilderment at the events of tonight had subsided from anger to annoyance and she settled for a small roll if her eyes before fixing them at the floor for a brief second.

"Come on then." She lifting her stare to look at the kitchen door before getting her feet to work and pushed past the avian back towards the low buzz of muttering that she could hear in the next room. Turning back over her shoulder, she hissed one more thing at Crane who had mixture of relief and annoyance on his face "but if you even think of persuading me to try that panda's food, I will make today's match with you look like a warm up, are we clear?"

The bird's wide eyes answered that question perfectly. Secretly offering herself the smallest of smirks, she continued into the kitchen, but not before catching the low mutter from Crane behind her, "stubborn stripy britches."

Ignoring him, but secretly planning a special match in the Training Hall to let him know later that she had heard him, the striped feline came back in through the door, noting immediately that the buzzing of mutter had stopped, waltzed right past the table where the rest of the Five were seated and headed straight for one of the cupboards; ignoring the feeling of the other five pairs of eyes that were watching her as she took out a plate from the cupboard before busying herself in finding her usual tofu.

"Umm … Master Tigress, I am making dinner for everyone else so you're more than welcome t' have some as well … It's not too far away from bein' served, just gotta few more things t' add to it…"

Someone took a very sharp breath at the panda's words and Tigress placed all the gold in the palace on the bet that it had been Crane. Sure enough when she turned to look at him midway through the panda's sentence, despite her annoyance she had to fight down a snicker at the bird's face as it honestly looked like he was silently offering up a prayer to the gods asking that he did not end up a pile of twigs tomorrow. Tigress caught his eye shortly after this and she could almost hear the unspoken words from the look the avian gave her: _I didn't say it!_

Boring her golden eyes into the panda whose sentence trailed off as his bright green eyes widened and he almost shrank away from her glare, she gave him smile that wasn't too far off sadistic as she lifted her plate with a slightly smaller than usual loaf of tofu on it. "Thank you … but no thank you." She purred out slowly, deliberately, dangerously as if showing the panda that she still overpowered him by long shot – then again, if he didn't already know that then he was dumber than what she thought. Her smile turned into something of a scowl at him after her words and that was enough for him to turn back around and suddenly find something that was apparently very fascinating about the celery that was sitting on the chopping board.

Slinking back past the panda, Tigress took her usual spot between Mantis and Monkey, setting her plate down in front of her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Mantis look from her lack-of-food filled plate to her and a look of disbelief crossed his tiny eyes, "That's it?" He whispered, "That's all you're eating? You're kidding!"

Tigress rolled her eyes but stayed silent; simply fixing her gaze on the tofu in front of her, knowing full well she wouldn't eat all of it anyway (She only took as much as she did to avoid such questions as what Mantis had just asked her – as well as to try and drown out the obvious suspicions of the rest of them that something was indeed up. _Should've grabbed more_ ).

She supposed that she could, if the subject ever did arise, blame it on Shifu's remark to her needing more ferocity the very day they found out about Oogway's vision that Tai Lung would return. It wasn't much of an excuse, but the feline was willing to say whatever needed to be said in order to keep the truth at bay from them … besides, in some ways that excuse would probably be more believable than the actual truth itself – and for the first time in forever, she found herself feeling slightly grateful at her master's particular choice of disappointed words to her the other day.

Speaking of the vision, her and the rest of the Five had heard nothing back from Shifu since Oogway had had it. All they knew was that their master had taken care of it by sending Zeng to Chorh-Gom prison with an order to double everything the guards could possibly think of in order to keep the snow leopard locked up. Underneath everything, Tigress had to wonder how quick Commander Vachir and the Guards would comply; she knew him and the rest of the Anvil of Heaven were as proud and as arrogant as they came (she would never be so disrespectful as to say that out loud though).

"Surely you want a bit more than that Tigress … dumplings? Bean buns? Something else, surely…"

Tigress clenched her jaw to stop herself from lashing out at the insect. No, she didn't want anything else; she was barely going to eat half of what was on her plate already. She certainly didn't want dumplings – their heavy fillings would probably make her sick, and as for bean buns; she couldn't even remember the last time she'd had those.

"So um … Po." Monkey said, no doubt attempting to lighten the atmosphere a little, "How was your training today?"

The panda chuckled as he popped the freshly chopped parsley into the pot "Oh it was cool. Nowhere _near_ as bad as what it was yesterday, so simple in fact that it was almost as if Shifu wasn't actually trying to hurt me at all."

The leader of the Furious Five couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at that statement. Was Shifu trying another tactic? To bore the Panda out so he'd give up out of boredom and saunter off home? If that was the case it didn't exactly look like it had worked any better than kicking him down the palace steps.

The panda was speaking again "Hey, guys? Just outta curiosity, do any of you sometimes get, I don't know ... confused by things that Master Oogway says?"

Aside from guessing that the panda meant the riddles that Oogway liked to say quite often, Tigress had to bite back a retort of the fact that the most confusing thing that she had heard Oogway say had been the other day when he declared the panda to be the Dragon Warrior. The chorus of a full blown out "YES" came from every other person in the room , in such perfect unison it nearly sounded like one loud voice, and Tigress couldn't depict whether it was to do with the other day or in general.

Po let out a relieved sigh "Oh good" He said as he began chopping up spring onions at an incredibly fast pace, "So I'm not the only one ... The other day I was under the Sacred Peach Tree and what he said to me was completely _weird_..."

The feline stared down at her plate as he said this and couldn't help but be a little surprised. To this day, she still remembered the first confusing thing she had ever heard from the Grand Master and it had been in the exact same spot that Po had just mentioned … and to this day, she still hadn't quite deciphered what Oogway's words to her that day had meant …

* * *

 _The little feline was tired. It was definitely getting into the late hours of the night; so much so that it couldn't be too far off midnight. But the banging from the Training Hall had been going nonstop since late afternoon and there was no way on earth she was sleeping with that going on, and though she knew exactly who was causing it, tonight she had to wonder why._

 _It had only been her and Master Oogway at the palace for the last week and a half. Master Shifu had left on a journey to one of the cities along the southern coastline after an urgent message had been sent saying his help was greatly needed; something about an explosion caused by some sort of invention which had gone wrong and crumbled three of the cities buildings leaving many trapped in the rubble. She knew of this because she had been with Tai Lung at the time that the message was received by Shifu and she still counted her lucky stars that she had been hidden from view behind the Ironwood Tree when the red panda had rushed to the snow leopard and informed him of the unfortunate event. By the time she had peaked around the tree, both of them had disappeared._

 _Her only company had mostly been the Grand Master since then (aside from one or two servants), who had told her of Shifu's abrupt departure and while he wasn't sure when he would be back, Oogway had assured her he wouldn't be away too long._

 _Truthfully it wasn't exactly Shifu she found herself missing the most, more the other one who had gone with him. Without Tai Lung there, it had been very quiet in the Jade Palace aside from the scattered servants scuttling around and of course Master Oogway._

 _Admittedly, though it had been quiet, it hadn't been too lonely for her while they were gone; Master Oogway had been good company to her; walking with her among the palace gardens, letting her wrap a paw around one of his claws and giving simple answers when she asked about certain flowers and pretty looking plants (Tai Lung had mentioned to her that Oogway's manner of speaking could range anywhere from barely understandable to downright confusing). He let her sit in the shade of the Sacred Peach Tree of Heavenly Wisdom in the late afternoon while he meditated on the ledge (she struggled not to giggle when he moved solely onto one leg), and she did have to cock her head in wonderment when he balanced perfectly on the top of his staff and stayed stock still, upside down for nearly an hour._

 _He let her walk with him in the Hall of Warriors and allowed her to stop and admire certain exhibits – something that Shifu didn't have time for as he was busy with other matters – listening with perfect patience, a content amused smile and a light chuckle as the little tiger cub couldn't help but babble about how beautiful the artefacts were and how much she loved some of the exquisite designs on certain ones._

 _And while she was in the Hall of Warriors on one of the afternoons, she couldn't help but glance up above the Moon Pool and stare in fascination at one particular part of the Hall that she'd never noticed before; the magnificent golden dragon on the ceiling who held the blood red Dragon Scroll in its teeth; the very scroll which in almost a matter of days now, Tai Lung would get when he was titled the Dragon Warrior, then maybe she might be properly introduced to him by Shifu and Oogway, since they had still made no move to tell her of him._ Maybe that's what they're waiting for…

 _Today however it was bluntly obvious when Shifu and Tai Lung arrived home; she had been dozing under the Sacred Peach Tree with Oogway who was doing his usual meditations (she never disturbed him while he was doing this) when an almighty bang of doors opening sounded from below them in the grounds, nearly causing Tigress to hit her head on the lowest branch of the tree from the jump of several feet that she made and Oogway, who was balancing upside down on his staff, slowly and calmly descended back to the ground and glanced in the direction of the banging which had continued on a short time afterwards, though not as loud as the first one … and Tigress couldn't help but think that the Grand Master's glance looked a little sad._

 _As much as Tigress wanted to see the older feline, she restrained herself from going near the Training Hall throughout the remainder of the day; firstly because she didn't doubt for a moment that Master Shifu would be with him and secondly because she didn't want to disrespect Master Oogway by taking off without being dismissed; she was aware that he would happily allow her to enjoy her own company should she ask, but all the same, she stayed until he sent for a servant to provide her with dinner. Shifu still hadn't emerged by then and neither had the banging stopped._

 _The banging had continued well into nightfall, and though Tigress had tried every trick in the book to get to sleep once she'd retired to her room for the night – from rocking herself back and forth, to shoving her pillow around her ears – nothing prevailed._

 _So that was why she was, once again back in the kitchen with a large bowl of bean buns in front of her and three currently in her mouth. She knew sugar probably wasn't helping her in the slightest to get to sleep, but they were the only food she could find in the kitchen within her reach and that her stomach seemed to approve of at the lateness of the hour._

 _Chew. Swallow. Bang. Chew. Swallow. Bang … it turned into an odd sort of rhythm that Tigress picked up on after a while and despite the sugary bean buns, it did start to lull her off a little, her eyelid started to droop and her head started to go forward, right there at the kitchen table. Chew. Swallow. Bang … Chew. Swallow. Bang … Chew. Swallow. Bang. Chew …_

 **CRUNCH!**

 _The cub's eyes flew open and the bean bun in her mouth nearly went down the wrong pipe from her lurch backwards as the echo of the noise much louder than the previous bangs rang around the small kitchen. She knew that crunching noise; she'd heard it before much louder as she had been much closer at the time – it had nearly given her a heart attack. That noise stemmed from a Wooden Warrior shattering under the snow leopard's kick. Wood would have flown everywhere as it had done when she was there, so fast and so abrupt that one of the wood shards had nearly taken out her eye (and probably would've if she hadn't dived behind one of the pillars in the nick of time)._

 _She groaned loudly and rubbed her eyes with a yawn, then pushed away the bowl and rested her chin on her folded arms on the table. No more noise was heard after that almighty crunch and the silence embraced her like a hug that a close friend would give … up until recent, she'd never known what that felt like. It wasn't like she had had any friends at Bao Gu let alone close ones, not really. Sure she got a brief hug from one or two of the others the very day her training with Shifu had been completed and they finally started to accept her … of course that also happened to be on the day of adoption, so it was only a mere hour or so of feeling partially like she had friends until she was left on her own again. While it was one of the best moments of her life when Shifu adopted her later that day (she would treasure that moment forever when he placed a domino beside hers and said simply "Let us go home") she had wondered on the journey back to the Jade Palace if she'd ever have someone she could call a friend. She found herself believing it would be too much to hope for a close one._

 _Now she did have a friend – a very close one it seemed, and though it was still a secret from everyone else, it was because of the older feline that she could compare the silence around her like a comforting embrace. He'd only hugged her once; which had been the night of her nightmare, but that embrace was enough._

 _The silence had gone on long enough that Tigress decided that she could finally go for a second take on trying to get to sleep. Leaving the bean buns on the table with the plan to hopefully have a few for breakfast tomorrow morning, she hopped down from the table and started back towards her room, looking forward to her bed, Oogoo and a newly silent atmosphere to get to sleep in. Just as she reached the kitchen doorway however, a sound of a door opening was heard down the corridor and the cub stopped dead._

 _She wasn't entirely sure what Master Shifu would do if he found out she was still up at this hour of the night and in all honesty, she wasn't prepared to find out. (The banging of course would be more than a valid excuse, but she wasn't going to take the risk of accidently telling Shifu she knew about Tai Lung.) Turning around swiftly she darted the other way towards the dormitories; the first corner getting closer and closer. She couldn't have been more than two meters away from turning the corner before she started hearing muttering. Still unsure of whom it was, she flew around the corner and pressed herself hard up against the wall, listening in as one voice became two and words could be made out. One of the voices coming from what she could hear to be a very irritated snow leopard._

 _"Why is it taking so long? That tortoise can act as confusing as what he speaks!"_

 _"Tai Lung, what have I told you about disrespecting the Grand Master?"_

 _"Please master, you know you're a hypocrite if you reprimand me for that; I've seen your dumbfounded expression heaps of times at plenty of the things he's said."_

 _In the short month that Tigress had known Master Oogway, she had only been confused by one thing he had said to her, and that had been earlier that day after the banging had started. She had dared to ask him what the banging was from; despite already knowing the answer, she knew that even if she didn't, it would be an understandable question to ask. The Grand Master had responded by placing a gentle hand on her shoulder and saying quietly "Patience my child. Patience can be bitter but its fruit is sweet." The way he had said it had been a little … off. But the cub couldn't place why nor could she understand it much._

 _Another thing that she couldn't understand was why the snow leopard was speaking the way he was. Tigress had never heard Tai speak in this sort of manner, Sure he'd been a little sassy a times but never like this. Calling Master Shifu a hypocrite? Mercy, she wouldn't have lived to see the next sunrise if she had said something like that to her adoptive father – when she had a chance to talk to him that is. Tigress wasn't overly fazed by Shifu's distance much; she knew that most of his time had to go towards Tai, especially since it was getting so close to his completion of the thousand scrolls which would then finally lead to him being pronounced the Dragon Warrior._

 _In the other room she could hear what sounded like Shifu trying and failing to disagree with Tai Lung's words "I agree that Master Oogway can have a … particular choice of words at times-"_

 _"At times? I've never heard him speak a sentence longer than five words that didn't leave me befuddled to an extent!"_

 _"– But remember you still have one scroll left to master." Shifu continued as though he had not been interrupted "I highly suspect he is waiting for you to complete the Thousand Scrolls. Besides, once you have mastered the last one, I shall bring you before Oogway myself as then you will be ready."_

 _"I was ready way before now, come on! The Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu are just a bonus-"_

 _"And who is the only one who mastered nearly half of them by thirteen years old?_

 _"That's not the-"_

 _"And who is one scroll away from becoming the first ever to master the entire Thousand Scrolls of Kung Fu?"_

 _"Shifu, you're missing the-"_

 _"No, Tai Lung" Shifu's tone of voice came through so firmly that Tigress nearly jumped to attention herself. "You are getting far too ahead of yourself. Focus. You have one more scroll to complete; it will be then that you will fully be ready. We must trust in Master Oogway's decision to wait until then, though seeing as you only have one more left, I imagine it will be incredibly soon."_

 _The snow leopard grumbled something that was inaudible from where Tigress was standing. She agreed somewhat with Master Shifu's words; in her opinion, she would almost find it strange that Tai would be given the title of the Dragon Warrior when he was still in the process of learning, (even though Shifu had told her that one is always learning, regardless of how old they are or how much they know already)._

 _Shifu spoke again; answering whatever Tai Lung's mutter had been, "Yes. I can agree with you there, but I'll bet you would have been just like that at that age if your circumstances were different; disobeying me and doing exactly what I told you not to do." A hint of teasing entered his tone, "I can see you being the perfect example of a rebel without a cause if your destiny wasn't to become the Dragon Warrior."_

 _The response to that was a disbelieving snort and Tigress could almost hear Tai Lung rolling his eyes followed by a one worded reply that was quiet but not too much that Tigress didn't catch it, "hardly."_

 _She admitted she didn't believe that either, though she had a feeling it was because of the way she knew him to be now; a strong, Kung Fu-driven warrior who was her best friend … her only friend … who trained endlessly for nights on end to become the best he could be for the day he was awarded the famous title under the rather stern watchful eye of his master._

 _Shifu chuckled, "we will never know son, but if Kung Fu didn't end up being what your life revolved around –"_

 _A bark of humorless laughter cut Shifu's sentence short, "Careful Master, or Oogway will be ranking in second place with 'most befuddling thing someone's ever said to me.' Didn't end up being my life? You have had me training since the day I kicked that dummy into the wall at six years old! I refuse to even think that I would have done something so dishonourable as to disobey you or go against your orders ... You'd rip me a new one if I did."_

 _Something tightened in Tigress' stomach as Tai Lung said these words, making her feel slightly nauseous and it wasn't to do with all the bean buns she had eaten earlier. She had disobeyed Shifu; by going into the Training Hall she had gone against his orders … were they talking about her?_

 _No. Surely they couldn't be. That would mean that Shifu was aware that she knew about Tai, and he would've consulted it with her by now … or not. She had forgotten that the duo had only just got home today and Tai had been turning the training room to smithereens ever since they set foot back inside the palace, Shifu wouldn't have had time to find her. Yet the only way he could know would be if Tai Lung had told him, and he would never do that … right?_

 _"Yes … yes I know." The little feline couldn't help but find her father's voice being a little too calm, but she could hear something of a smile in there too, though whether that was due to Tai Lung's loyalty or the extra add-on of his last sentence she wasn't entirely sure._

 _Shifu spoke again "Patience Tai Lung; I know the journey pushed us back a little, but it has not stopped the inevitable, nothing will. You have done well as always and I too anticipate the day you are chosen which I know will be soon."_

 _"Could've fooled me …" The tone of these words didn't sound angry or annoyed anymore, it was more a tone of defeat._

 _The pregnant pause that followed this gave Tigress the impression that either Shifu had given up on trying to lighten the snow leopard's mood or was secretly agreeing with his words. She supposed on some level she could understand the impatience of the whole matter. Given that she hadn't known Tai Lung or Shifu very long, she had been around the spotted feline long enough that she had a pretty good guess of how long he had been training and – from the constant banging, crunching and crushing of all the devices reducing to rubble in the Training Hall – how back-breaking that training had been. It made her think about his words to her a couple of weeks ago on the night of that nightmare:_ I know he's proud of me _… Somehow, Shifu's apparent method of training made her wonder how much truth was actually in those words. The Master of the Jade Palace sure had a weird way of expressing it if he was._

 _Tigress knew she shouldn't jump to conclusions so suddenly; after all she hadn't physically seen Shifu around Tai, and Shifu had just told the snow leopard he had done well as always so she could be completely wrong … but like Master Oogway's words to her earlier that day; it all seemed confusing and very … off …_

* * *

"… So, I'm like "Fine. You may be a wolf. You may be the scariest bandit in the Hajin Province, but you're a lousy tipper!""

It took Tigress a few solid seconds to realize what had happened, and for a moment she panicked; worried that she might have done something extravagant again. But after looking around briefly, none of the others were even giving her a second glance. They were all wide eyed with fascination at whatever the Panda had been talking about, which she didn't have much of an idea as to what it could have been. But either way, if the Five were distracted by something else that kept them away (if only temporarily) then she could somewhat see it as a comfort. Still didn't make her dislike the panda any less though.

She swallowed back a growl. Not only did that flashback agitate her because, once again, it tied into her past with that snow leopard, but also the fact that she never managed to work out what on earth the tortoise had been talking about when he had said that to her. She didn't know then, she didn't know now. It didn't look like patience had got her anywhere in the last twenty years. Also, strangely enough, thanks to that flashback, it turned out that she _did_ remember the last time she'd had Bean buns. If she wasn't so irritated, she may have had a bite back a snicker.

The conversation was still going; from what she was hearing, the striped feline guessed it was something to do with a customer from where he worked, but she wasn't entirely sure, nor did she particularly care. Her thoughts were still elsewhere. The night she had overheard Shifu and Tai talking had been a week away from the day everything went horribly wrong. She still remembered the tone the snow leopard used towards his father in the kitchen; a tone he had never used to her. It was like he had become an entirely different person when he hadn't been around her; impatient, stubborn slightly arrogant … in a way he almost reminded her of herself! Tigress inwardly shuddered at the thought of there being similarities between her present self and him back then.

"ORDER UP!"

Four bowls of steaming, seasoned noodles were passed around the table to each of the others. Tigress glanced at the bowl Mantis had and got a strong whiff of the spices that accompanied the dish. Not very long ago that smell had been quite delicious, now it just made her want to retch. The rest of the Five however, had another opinion entirely.

"This is really **good!** "

Tigress wasn't overly surprised at Mantis' observation; there were very few dishes that the insect could say he didn't like (which, shockingly enough, didn't include his horrific chilli soup disaster) and the fact that even she had to admit it did (or had) smelt quite good, there would be no doubt he would love it.

"Naw come on, you should try my dad's secret ingredient soup; he actually … knows the secret ingredient." The panda almost sounded disappointed saying this, though whether that was because he didn't know what that ingredient was or because of something else, she didn't know.

A number of replies answered that remark from the others however. First Viper, then Crane, then Mantis again; each reply more praising and gushing than the last (though Mantis' remark sounded very much like a punch line of one of his many dirty jokes) and as the leader of the Five had never been one for that sort of sap, it took all she had in her not to roll her eyes at what she was hearing.

Funnily enough it was Monkey who made the daring comment she had half been waiting for since the food had been tasted (though she could safely say she didn't expect it to be from Crane.) "Tigress, you have GOT to try this!"

Already more annoyed than ever thanks to the memory that she had fallen into without even thinking about it, the feline offered a rather humourless smile before picking up her plate of tofu – now knowing for sure that she wasn't even going to eat a tenth of what was on it – and decided to give her own … remark on the matter.

"It is said that the Dragon Warrior can survive for months at a time on nothing but the dew of a single gingko leaf and the energy of the universe." She stomached the tiniest cube of tofu as she said this; half to jab at the panda at his inability to go an hour without a hearty intake on food and half because she knew she wouldn't handle much more than that.

Out of the corner of her eye she could see that it wasn't just the panda giving her a look. Mantis was looking rather sceptical at her and Viper had a look of subtle annoyance at her along with a private look of worry; no doubt at the events of earlier today which Tigress knew the serpent wasn't going to brush aside easily. She could see Crane shaking his head and Monkey just shrugged and took another spoonful of his soup. Po meanwhile spoke up with his usual happy-go-lucky tone.

"I guess my body doesn't know it's the Dragon Warrior yet" – _Because you aren't!_ – "Gonna need a lot more 'en dew and … uhh … universe juice."

A small part of Tigress – though she knew thinking about him did more damage to her than good – had to silently wonder what on earth Tai Lung would do if he knew who had been chosen. She couldn't help but think about how he'd react if he knew it had been a panda of all creatures let alone one who didn't know a thing about Kung Fu. The snow leopard would probably make Shifu, herself and the rest of the Fives rage look tame in comparison … after what she witnessed the day he'd been denied that very title all those years ago; the majority of her didn't doubt that at all.

The sound of laughter snapped Tigress out of her thoughts again and, looking at the panda she saw why everyone was giggling; a string of noodle had stuck above his upper lip, making it seem like he had a very lopsided moustache and one which the rest of the Five seemed to think resembled the same long whiskers that Shifu had, which just made the striped feline grimace heavily; they really had gone bonkers.

And Po was simply feeding the flames, deepening his voice into a very mocking tone "you will never be the Dragon Warrior, unless you lose five hundred pounds and brush your teeth!" _You could do both of them and still be nowhere close!_

Tigress' golden eyes widened in bewilderment at that panda's mocking towards her master and her brow soon furrowed in anger. Who was he to imitate the red panda in such a disrespectful way? He had no right to do so. She would have voiced her fury out very openly if the laughter from her comrades hadn't stopped her. The rest of them were finding this whole ordeal hilarious and it was making the feline's blood boil. At this rate she wasn't sure what she would have preferred more, listening to this or being lost in her head – purely because in all honesty; tigress didn't believe the hauntings of her past would be forever. As soon as word got back that Chorh-Gom prison's security had been updated to Shifu's standards; it would subside … at least she damn well hoped it would.

'Shifu' in the meantime had – in a kind of way – read her mind somewhat, by what he said next, "What is that noise you're making? Laughter, I've never heard of it! …"

Tigress didn't pay too much attention to the rest of the panda's sentence. That line hit a nerve in her; it tugged on a heartstring which pained her. Despite hating the panda more every growing minute for his mockery and his lack of respect towards her master, the tiger couldn't help but admit the truth in the words the panda spoke, even if it was just for a laugh (albeit a disrespectful laugh). She wasn't sure Shifu _did_ actually know what laughter was. Maybe he did, once, a long time ago, back before she had been adopted; Tigress hated to believe it, but even in the short month or so between her adoption and the fateful day of Tai Lung's denial of the Dragon Warrior and Scroll, she had barely seen Shifu smile let alone laugh. He had given her the smallest of smiles when he came to take her home that day at Bao Gu, but that was as fatherly as he attempted to be with her. After that, all she had seen in his features was sternness, control and – dare she say it – discipline. She remembered hoping that maybe after Tai Lung had been given that famous title, she would definitely get to see Shifu's softer, more fatherly side towards her; the side that he had shown the snow leopard. But … well it hadn't turned out like that at all, and she had suffered through Shifu's stoic, unyielding frown at her since that awful day twenty years prior like the events of that day had been her fault. And there had been nothing she could do about it … and she had tried … by the Gods, she had tried.

She had put herself through training that wasn't too far off as back-breaking as Tai Lung's had been, and that had half been of her own free will – especially in the early days of the older feline's decent – in the hopes that Shifu would smile at her loyalty and her progress. She had gone for days without food or sleep to read up on almost every parchment there was in the Scroll room to expand her knowledge so Shifu could see just how dedicated she was to him and to Kung Fu. She had followed every order, taken every criticism, withstood every blow; all without complaint in the hopes that her master would soften, would smile, would be proud of her … would love her.

But nothing ever worked, and slowly, up until the day the Furious Five were formed, Tigress had felt like she was simply in another orphanage. It had dawned her overtime that the only one who ever really bothered to show her any sort care or love had been Tai Lung. With him gone, things had really got put into perspective. She had felt alone, unloved, unwanted; even more so after she had turned eleven years old when she had tried her last idea in the book to help Shifu smile as well as help her … and that idea had been the most tragic one of all …

Monkey's loud, cackling laugh made Tigress scowl heavily at him before turning away from the rest of the Five – and for a moment, everything completely left her head as her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at what she saw. Judging by the abrupt cease of the laughter around her, she guessed the others could all see it as well.

Standing in the doorway as if he had always been there as a statue exhibit for people to admire was Master Shifu, the ever-present frown stuck on his face, even deeper than usual, but that was probably because the unobservant panda continued to make-fun of him by placing two empty bowls above his head to resemble the red panda's abnormally large ears. Po hadn't noticed Shifu at all.

"Ears! It's not working for ya? I thought they were pretty good."

 _Oh this is not happening …_

"It's Shifu!" She heard Monkey's very low hiss that was still heard by everyone in the room, Shifu included (he never showed it, but she knew her master).

The panda wasn't getting the hint "Of course its Shifu whaddya think I'm doing?" Tigress had to fight every cell in her body not to smack her palm hard into her forehead. _He really IS dumber than what I thought._

Maybe it was the looks of their faces that the panda saw, or maybe it was just instinct, but regardless of what it was, the 'Dragon Warrior' finally noticed the Master of the Jade Palace standing behind him and did what looked like a rather ridiculous looking dance move to the side in embarrassment as he acknowledged him. Tigress couldn't resist rolling her eyes at his utter stupidity as he stood there looking like a fish out of water, quickly slurping up the noodle from his lip with both noodle bowls sticking to his chest like breasts.

The rest of the Five however, had gone straight back into their giggling fit at the rather comical sight, though they were trying – and failing terribly – to keep it subtle. It was then that Shifu spoke, and his words shut them all up. "You think this is funny?! Tai Lung has escaped from prison and you're acting like children!"

Suddenly, the tiny cube of tofu Tigress had eaten felt like an entire feast had been devoured in her stomach as she felt it flip over and for one terrible moment she thought she was going to be sick. Oogway's vision turned out (as always) to be correct. Tai Lung was returning. Tigress couldn't help but think back to earlier that evening when her inner voice had told her that it was just a 'little vision from a crazy old turtle.' If that voice had belonged to an actual body, she would have taken their lights out by now.

Shifu was still shouting, "He is coming for the Dragon Scroll" – _Wow, way to state the obvious, Shifu_ – "And you are the ONLY one who can stop him." _Wait what?_

If Tigress hadn't physically seen Shifu gesture to the panda or look at him, she wouldn't have believed it. A large part of her still didn't! There was no way Shifu could be saying that. The red panda had tried for the last three days to get rid of the guy, and now he was saying that Po was the only one to STOP the one who could possibly be one of the toughest Kung Fu warriors of all time. A fat panda against that? Po wouldn't stand a chance.

She rested her elbows onto the table as she heard Po try to ease the tension with an uneasy laugh "and here I am saying you've got no sense of humour! I'm gonna … stop …" By the way he trailed off and the way his eyes widened when she casted him a sidelong glance, the feline saw he had figured out that her master was anything but joking. Tigress actually wanted to think he was joking; but there would be snow in the summer before that actually happened, and she would have to see it to believe it.

"…Master Oogway'll stop him! He did it before, he'll do it again!" Tigress did wonder why that hadn't been the first option. It's not like the Grand Master _hadn't_ taken Tai Lung down last time; she would know…

"Oogway cannot!" Shifu snapped rather abruptly but then recoiled drastically; his next two words were not too far off of a whisper, "Not anymore."

 _WHAT?!_

Tigress' head spun towards the red panda; seeing, for the first time, Oogway's staff clutched firmly in his tiny paws. She heard all the others echo her disbelieving gasp as the painful truth behind Shifu's words sank in. Did Shifu actually mean that Oogway … The Grand Master Oogway … was gone?

Shifu looked wearily down at staff before meeting the golden eyes of the striped feline "Our only hope … is the Dragon Warrior."

"The Panda?!" She spoke these words as if daring her master to confirm her suspicions, beckoning him to cross the line, proving to her that Tai Lung was correct (and incredibly bold) to threaten him with hypocrisy that night she'd overheard them talking.

"Yes, the Panda!" Shifu was barring on anger … and Tigress was taking none of it.

"Master Please!" She bolted up from her chair, pushing herself backwards from the table as she did so. She had told herself so many times today that whoever that snow leopard had become now was not the one she knew twenty years ago; because of that damn flashback, she didn't even know if she actually knew who he really was back then. Maybe she had just seen the side he wanted her to see. Either way, now she **had** to believe it; she had to crush that slither of hope that still said that the tender side of him was still there, because it wasn't and she knew that. Now he was on his way here … and didn't she know the fact that the spotted feline did **not** go down without a fight. "Let us stop Tai Lung; this is what you trained us for!"

It had to have been what Shifu trained them for. He had even told Oogway the day that Panda had been chosen that the tortoise had been about to point at _her_ before he fell in front of her. This was what she was meant to do. This was what she had to do, for more reasons than one. She had been so close to saying 'Let **me** stop Tai Lung.'

But, just like her, Tigress' adoptive father was just as stubborn if not more and he stood his ground as firmly as she stood hers, "NO! It is not _your_ destiny to defeat Tai Lung. It is **his**..." and his staff pointed at the blank space beside him where Po had originally been. "Where'd he go?"

Crane piped up quietly, the sound of his voice made it obvious that he was still in quite a bit of shock. Tigress almost felt guilty that she had spoken to him so harshly before. "He um … left when you were saying that Oogway was gone …" And Shifu vanished before Crane had finished his sentence.

Tigress worked to stop herself growling. Shifu should have bloody celebrated; something had finally happened to drive the panda out of the palace. That was what they all were praying for since the day he got chosen. Instead, Shifu was now determined that he stay and fight off Tai Lung of all flaming people.

The other thing that made her temper flare, but also made her gut churn – for the upteendozenth time tonight – was the truth hidden behind Shifu's enormous orbs when he ladled it onto her that it wasn't her destiny to take the convict down. She saw the reason that was only meant for her to see in his eyes. It made her heart seize up.

Before she knew it, the feline was marching out of the kitchen, vaguely hearing the voices of the others as they called out to her, asking where she was going. She ignored them; breaking into a sprint as she disappeared after Master Shifu, determined to make him see the ridiculousness of thinking that one such as Po was going to defeat one such as Tai Lung and knowing that she herself had a much better chance of standing against him …

... even though she knew perfectly well **why** Shifu thought _she_ wasn't capable of stopping the snow leopard.

* * *

 **A/N: As it turns out, writing a scene from the movie while weaving another story in behind it is a lot more difficult than what I thought it was going to be. I apologize if some of it sounds like it wasn't too necessary to be in this chapter, but it turned out to be my only way to beat the dose of Writers Block I had on this chapter :/ Chapters from here on in, get a lot more juicy, I promise, as we'll be going into the bridge scene soon and the flashbacks will be going into the denial of the Dragon Scroll and such like. Though here's hoping I can update a little bit quicker this time. And if I don't have the next chapter up by the end of this year then I hope you all have a happy, safe Christmas and New Year :)**

 _ **Yuhuang**_ **means Jade Emperor and is one of the Chinese Cosmic Gods; a human-like representation of Heaven.**


	8. Enough

**A/N: I LIIIIIIIVE! Words cannot say how sorry I am about the year and a half wait on this one guys. On top of a very busy year last year, Writer's Block decided to show up at my doorstep and REFUSED to leave! Gah! And I know that this chapter is slightly shorter than prior ones, I do have a feeling even after all that that this chapter could have been a little better but I'll let you be the judge of that. Hopefully it was worth the wait *Crosses fingers***

* * *

"Tigress! Where are you going? Tigress!"

Viper's words were meeting a brick wall as her stubborn, stripy best friend and leader vanished fleet-footedly out of the kitchen. It was far from uncommon, truthfully. Tigress had always been the most stubborn, stoic, unyielding member of the Furious Five. She loathed appearing weak; most of the time the serpent wasn't really talking to Tigress as such; more her wall. Her façade. Her shell. In the feline's books, 'Weak' obviously meant 'showing emotions' or better yet, 'telling the truth'. Why did she have to be so … arduous?

Today had been different. Very different. Viper was used to Tigress having a rather aggressive way of training. Having known her for ten years, it would be odd if the serpent didn't. But she had not seen anything like that. Tigress had gone completely berserk on the trees in a way that was way out of sorts even for the feline. Even in the many battles they had fought in over the past decade, Viper had never seen Tigress go that wild on anything before, be it tree or enemy.

Well … okay, scratch that, there had been a handful of times - the stand out time being that one crocodile at the previous year's Kung Fu tournament. He got on everyone's nerve with his arrogant spunky attitude and his on-going boasting about how invincible he was. And heaven help him when he verbally insulted the feline and then went so far as to make a snatch at Shifu and Oogway as well; claiming them to be a 'short, flee-ridden street rat' and a 'slow, loopy idiot'. That was enough to make all of them fire up, but it was Tigress he was fighting. So it was relatively satisfying to have the leader lose her nut and send him scooting back to mommy with a black eye, four missing teeth, an arm bending the wrong way and his tail between his legs. But even that was a stretch to compare that incident with the striped feline's brutality today. Her actions were enough to bring curses out of the snake, and that **never** happened.

The serpent shook her head slowly; having given up the futile attempts to get Tigress' attention and glanced across the table at Mantis, "What has gotten into her?"

The insect shrugged "What makes you think any of us'd know? You're the closest one to her by long shot Viper! If you don't know, how should we?"

"He's got a point" Monkey said hesitantly "Whatever's bothering her; if she was to tell anyone, the one she'd go to would be you."

Viper was all too aware of that. She bowed her scaly head and sighed heavily "well at this point, I don't have a much better guess then you at the moment. I don't have a clue what could have wound her up this much." The serpent wasn't going to lie, that annoyed her more than she thought it would. Yes, Tigress wasn't one for long, heart to heart conversations, and stubborn could have been her middle name and no one would batter an eyelid or even think to question it. But Viper had always gone to Tigress of she had something bothering her and despite Tigress' stoic nature, she always gave a listening ear and a helping paw if needed. It somewhat saddened Viper that Tigress wouldn't let Viper do the same for her.

There was silence for a few beats; all four of them seemingly lost in the maze of what on earth had caused Tigress to become this unstable, before Mantis shrugged and hopped down from the table. "Well" he said lightly "while you guys figure out what's got her so antsy-pantsy, I'm off to see the show."

"What show?" Monkey piped up.

"Po and Shifu, duh! Shifu trying to make him stay after being hell-bent on kicking him out; can't let the guy live this one down!"

Viper groaned. Shifu was one to bury one alive and dance on their grave if they aggravated him. The panda himself had been a perfect example – and none of it had even been his fault. "Shifu will personally kill you …"

"Wait for me!" Monkey shot out the door after the vanished insect, leaving the serpent's words to trail off to nothing, leaving only her and Crane sitting at the table, both looking a little dumbfounded and irritated.

"Well …" Crane said after a few moments "That escalated quickly."

Viper had to agree. Tonight's dinner hadn't gone at all like she had expected. Granted, of course, that since the Panda had showed up, no one could really have expected anything at any point of the day. She looked back down at her coils "I have no idea about her … what could've gotten to her so badly?" It wasn't the first time that question had gone through her head and saying it out loud didn't make finding the answer any easier …

"I might've found something…"

… Or maybe it did. Vipers head shot up to look at the avian "What? You did? Why didn't you say so?" she said, a little too loudly than what she planned.

Crane hushed her "Keep it down. Look, I'm not entirely sure, it could be absolutely nothing, but when I went to get Tigress for dinner I … I caught her looking at something…"

Viper tried her best not to hurry him along "Well … what was it?"

"It was some kind of scroll, I didn't see what was on it, but from the way Tigress looked when she noticed me and where she put it when she realized I was there … again it may be zip, but the way she reacted was not the way one would if they were holding a mere tofu recipe."

What Crane was ultimately suggesting hadn't been overlooked by Viper, and, on a good day, the thought of rummaging through the feline's personal items with a high risk of being caught wouldn't exactly appeal to the serpent, and even in this situation the idea still didn't play any nicer in her gut. "Tigress will have both our heads for trophies if she catches us snooping around her room."

"Trust me; that fact wasn't lost on me either" Crane admitted "But judging by the direction she headed, she's probably gone to either berate Shifu or beat up Po - one of the two - so hey presto, her bedroom will be vacant. But I'll only risk it if you will."

Every single cell in Viper's body was yelling at her to turn this idea down flat. Everything about this was wrong on so many levels; even if Tigress didn't stuff them both and keep them as new door-stoppers for the training hall if she found out, the burden of prying through her best friends things would most likely weigh heavily on the scaly member until she finally told her out of guilt - to which the only things weighing her down after that would be fluff, rice and rag. _Don't risk it! Say no. Nothing Tigress is pulling at the moment is worth this, you'll find another way to sort her out. Shut it down. Now!_

"Okay, let's do it."

* * *

Never before had the bunkhouse corridor looked so uninviting. Viper could feel Cranes uneasiness alongside hers as they both started down the hall, her slithering and his feet pattering quietly along the wooden panels. From the kitchen to the corridor, Viper had changed her mind at least seven times about going through with this idea. No matter what kind of light she attempted to see it in, or what good intentions she told herself that she and Crane had for doing this, it did not make the churning in her body lighten up any more than it had when Crane first indirectly suggested the idea.

And why did Tigress' bedroom have to be at the end of the darn corridor? Not only was the corridor looking as inviting as a pit full of black spiders but it also seemed incredibly long, like it had suddenly become a mile to get to the feline's chamber. "I'm not sure about this." The serpent whispered.

"I heard you the last eight times Viper." - _He's been keeping count?_ \- "Look, we can stop if you want and go back. I told you I'd only do it if you would."

Viper sighed and kept slithering toward the door to Tigress' room. She knew she'd most likely feel terrible for days after doing this, but truthfully, she'd never stop kicking herself if she turned back now. "This is a lose, lose situation either way, so may as well keep going."

The avian placed a wing gently on her scales "It may not be completely. We may find something."

"We better."

The creaking of Tigress' door as they opened it, couldn't have sounded louder in the silence. Viper hadn't been in Tigress' room very many times and of the few that she had, it had not been for very long. The striped feline never had been fond of anybody in her room (whether she herself had been present or not). Everyone had simply put the reason being that she was never in there for very long, only to sleep or change clothes – either reason was more than sufficient as to why she never wanted company – but now, both Viper and Crane were under suspicion; what if it was more than that?

A new shiver went through Viper when she peered into Tigress' bunk. It looked more uninviting than the corridor had. Nothing had physically changed about it. Her bedroll was laid out neatly on the bed base and her small chest of drawers sat harmlessly in the corner with the corner of Tigress' green vest hanging out of one the top drawers. It was the atmosphere and vibe of the small space that shook Viper. The serpent definitely wasn't backing out now but she wasn't going to take her dear sweet time on this. The sooner her and Crane got out of there, the better.

"Where would she have put this scroll?" Viper hissed out, making Crane jump beside her.

"The chest under the bed. It's where she stuffed it when I walked in."

Viper couldn't help but admire the beautiful design around the little chest. The golden dragon that weaved itself around the chest as if protecting it – despite making yet another churn go through the serpent's body – was incredibly exquisite. "It's gorgeous."

A curt nod from Crane told her that although he agreed, this was not the time for Viper to get started on just how pretty she found the chest - lord knows how long they'd be in there otherwise. Crane gingerly locked a wing underneath the lid of the small chest and made to swing the lid open.

"Wait ... I'm not sure about this." _The poor bird must think my tongue's broken by now. Is that honestly all I can say?_

Crane's wing haltered. "Again, Viper?"

He didn't sound too annoyed, maybe just a little urgent. Not that Viper blamed him; time was ticking and regardless of whether they went through with this plan or not, they couldn't know when Tigress would be back. Viper didn't plan on being here when the feline did and she was sure that Crane felt the same. The serpent bowed her head slightly "I just feel bad. Once you open that, there's no going back from it." She peered up at the avian. "As much as I want to know what's bothering her, I ... I don't want to hurt her, or break her trust in me."

Crane looked at her and a hint of sympathy entered his eyes. He sighed "We'll turn back then, Go see what the others are up t-"

 **SNAP!**

The chest was open before Viper even had time to think about what she was doing. Crane nearly made a hole through Tigress' roof from the height he jumped as her tail had slipped itself under the lid - almost entirely without the serpent's permission, as if it had a mind of its own - and snapped it open before she had a chance to rethink anything. Beside her, Crane was looking like he was two beats short of a heart attack. Breathing very heavily and clutching his chest tightly. She didn't think she had ever seen him jump so high in her life. Don't ... _do_ that!" He said between rasps.

"Sorry." It was all Viper could think to say. Her eyes were scanning over the contents of the chest and although she could see the yellow scroll that must be the one Crane had seen. She couldn't help but wonder about the other things in there as well. A handful of gold dominoes, a diary that truthfully looked rather new and untouched. But the most surprising of the items was ...

"She owns a stuffed turtle?"Crane voiced the exact thing Viper had been thinking.

"And a pink blanket!" Viper added with the same surprised tone as the bird. She blinked with confusion. She had never struck Tigress as someone who would own a toy animal ... and she certainly knew the feline wouldn't be seen alive wearing something pink (which the serpent thought a little odd since the tiger's favorite color was red and as far as Viper was concerned, the two colors weren't that much different from each other. One was simply a darker shade than the other.)

She had to admit though, that the little turtle was kind of cute. It's little stumpy legs flopped out to the side and its single thread smile made it look warm and lovable. Viper found herself smiling at it, brushing the tip of her tail across its fluffy shell and got a new surprise when she found it to be quite soft if not slightly dusty. "Who knew Tigress would have this little guy in her possessions?"

"Viper ... the scroll."

The scroll in question was now clasped lightly in Cranes wing. The avian himself looking expectantly at her as if waiting for her to give him the okay to open it. The familiar feeling of dread found it's way back into Vipers stomach. She looked at Crane and took a breath "Are you sure about this?"

Crane looked like he was fighting the urge to roll his eyes at her - and no part of her blamed him. "Are you?" He asked, sounding almost strained.

 _Not in the slightest_ "Just do it."

Clasping the top of the scroll gently, Viper watched as Crane inhaled and pulled the scroll open quickly as if he did it before he could change his own mind. Viper couldn't see it yet as it was out of her view. She watched as Cranes eyes widened then watched as his eyebrows furrowed then rose slightly. She let out the breath she didn't know she'd been holding. "Well?"

"I ... don't know."

Viper huffed out, feeling defeated "I knew this'd a'll be for nothing! Why did we even think-"

"It's not that. I know what it is, Shifu has one in the scroll room, I've seen it in there ... I just don't know why Tigress would have one like it." Crane turned the scroll around so Viper could finally see what was on it and after the realization of what it was had hit her, she found her brow rising as well. The serpent wasn't exactly sure if this was an answer or had just provided them both with more questions.

"I don't understand."

"Neither do I. Now you know what I mean." Crane said quietly beside her.

"But ... I don't understand" Viper said again. "Why would she have a-"

A blur of movement outside Tigress' window stopped the serpent mid-sentence. Crane darted to the window and looked out, then back at Viper. "We'll have to think about this later, Tigress has left the palace."

Viper carefully placed the scroll back in it's place and shut the chest, sliding it quickly back under the tiger's bed "Three guesses as to where she's going."

"We both know the answer to that." Crane answered, flying to the door, Viper right on his tail. The two of them fled the feline's room - and nearly flattened Mantis and Monkey in the corridor. Viper gasped "Mantis! Monkey!"

"There you both are" Monkey started "we were looking for you ... what were you doing in-"

"Tigress is out." Mantis said hurriedly, cutting across the simian. "Shifu tried to go all mushy on Po saying he's the warrior an' all that, but Po ain't takin' none of it. He's left, Shifu's given up and Stubborn Stripy's off to take on Tai Lung. At least I'm sure that's where she's headed."

Viper was ready to bet all the jade in the palace that that was where Tigress was taking off to. "I'm not letting her go alone. Are you all coming?" Not waiting for the answer, Viper was already slithering at top speed out of the bunkhouse with the other three hot on her heels.

The four of them shot out at lightning speed out of the palace after the quickly vanishing feline. The night air felt glorious on Viper's scales as she flew through the air the same way Tigress had just done towards the roofs of the houses in the valley, keeping a keen eye on Tigress' figure as she shot off over the rooftops towards the outskirts of the valley.

But even though for the most part, Viper was anxious and somewhat determined to catch up to Tigress and stand with her when they were inevitably faced with the snow leopard, part of the serpent's mind was still elsewhere ... focused on that scroll that lay in the chest in Tigress' room, wondering just how deep of a story it held, and why Tigress even had something like that to begin with.

* * *

Tigress was _Fuming!_

The leader of the Furious Five stood atop the roof of the Jade palace, taking in the conversation - no, argument - that was absurdly going on between the panda and Shifu. What in the world was going on tonight? First noodles, then the shock that Tai Lung was returning and now Shifu's gone and done a full 180 turn on the flabby lug and saying that **he** is the one who will stop the bloody snow leopard. Tigress almost wanted to beat her master's brains in or at least check to see if he still had any. What in Shifu's right mind was making him think that Po was going to put an stop to the convict? It was taking everything in the feline not to pounce down there and take every ounce of anger she carried towards the panda out on either him or her master, but she stopped herself. She had to hear the argument out.

"You will fight him because **you** are the Dragon Warrior." Tigress was physically watching the red panda saying these words and she still wasn't believing it. Was he actually sane right now? What on earth had Master Oogway said to him before he passed to make Shifu have this massive change of heart towards the panda?

It seemed that Po himself had the same thoughts as her.

"You don't believe that! -ow - you NEVER believed that, from the first moment I got here, you've been trying to get rid of me!"

It was said so ... bluntly, so painfully almost, that Tigress oddly found her anger toward him dull down slightly at that statement. He'd known that from the start by the sounds of things? So he hadn't been completely oblivious this whole time. That was something at least.

What was even blunter was her Master's immediate response, "Yes! I was!" His tone fell like a rock after that "But now I ask you to trust in your Master as I have come to trust in mine."

"You're not my Master! And I'm not the Dragon Warrior!"

Tigress could feel her anger sparking up again at the Panda's statement. The feline knew her line of thought should have been something like _'Finally'_ or _'Hallelujah, we have a chance to be rid of him!'._ But instead it more leaning towards _"Why?"_ If he knew he wasn't the Dragon Warrior, if he _knew_ Shifu wanted him gone, then why didn't he quit?

"Than why didn't you quit?!" As it turned out, her master mirrored her thinking "You knew I was trying to get rid of you, yet you stayed."

"Yeah, I stayed ..." It wasn't said angrily, it was more of a defeated tone. Tigress couldn't help the feeling in her gut that she was **not** going to like what she was about to hear.

"I stayed, because, every time you threw a brick at my head or said I smelled, it hurt! ... _But it could never hurt more than it did every day of my life just being me_."

If there had ever been a line that spoke more to the leader of the Furious Five then she could not think of it. It was not quite the same reason as the Panda, but she too had hated who she was for most of her life. Never good enough, never strong enough, never brave enough ... just never enough. The hatred that she had felt so strongly toward the panda was almost non-existent now, and she couldn't really bring herself to mourn the loss of it.

"I stayed because I thought ... if anyone could change me ... could make me _not_ me - it was you! The greatest Kung Fu teacher in all of China!"

That hit a sore spot. It was more or less because of Shifu that she hated herself. He was the reason that she believed she wasn't enough in any aspect of the word. Not enough for him at least. Tigress knew there had only been one person who had been enough for Shifu. The tiger had been forced to live in his shadow since the day he left and prior as well - literally and figuratively. The ironic part was that Tai Lung had been the only one who properly made her feel like she was enough.

 ** _That damn Snow_** _**Leopard!**_

"But I _can_ change you! I _can_ turn you into the Dragon Warrior! And I will!" Tigress rolled her eyes at that. If he apparently couldn't turn herself or one of the rest of the Five into the Dragon Warrior then what made him think he was going to be successful with ... Po?

"Come on! Tai Lung is on his way here right now! And even if takes him a hundred years to get here, how are _you_ gonna change _this_ into the Dragon Warrior? Huh?"

Tigress found herself waiting for the answer to this almost as impatiently as the Panda was. But as the seconds dragged on and no sound coming from the red panda, she realized after a closer observation that for the first time in a long, _long_ time, her adoptive father looked complete and utterly stumped.

"How?"

The look on her master's face didn't move a muscle, even with the Panda pushing him to get an answer. Tigress was sure he was trying to come up with a suitable answer to give him, the thing that was miraculously going to do the trick and turn Po into the legendary warrior that would take down the strong spotted feline. But nothing seemed to be coming.

"How?!"

 _Well Shifu? Speak up! How?_

Still nothing. Shifu always had been too damn proud to admit that sometimes he just didn't know everything. Tigress tried not to think about the fact that she was a hypocrite if she criticized him for this ... but then again, one must wonder who she got that trait from in the first place.

"HOW?!"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

Tigress' jaw almost dropped. The Panda had broke Shifu, there was no way he would ever say that. She couldn't have heard that correctly, surely ... **Surely!**

" _... I don't know."_

There was no mistaking it that time ... Shifu had admitted something she never ever expected him to admit; for once he didn't know the answer.

Po sighed heavily "That's what I thought" he said quietly.

Half an hour ago, Tigress was fuming at everything that had gone down that evening ... now she was as stumped as her master was just before. She watched almost helplessly as her adoptive father started walking slowly back up the stairs, leaving Po alone looking - for lack of a better word - lost. Tigress could feel her heart going out to the big guy ... She **really** didn't like that.

The Panda was useless now. Not saying he ever did have much of a use here prior, but he had given up, and judging by her master's hunched figure and slow pace as he heading - by the look of it up towards the Sacred Peach Tree, he too had surrendered to a battle that had only just begun.

Tigress would **not!**

Shaking her head, hardening up her heart and her stamina, the leader of the Furious Five turned away from the pitiful sight and shut her ruby eyes shut. There was only one way of proving to her father that she was capable of taking down Tai Lung and proving to Master Oogway that he truly had made a mistake in his choosing; and that was taking down the Snow Leopard herself.

In one strong, graceful leap, the tiger threw herself backwards off of the roof of the Jade Palace, plummeting through the air towards the village, the cool rush of the night air feeling amazing on her shoulders as she admitted to herself that it wasn't just for Master Shifu and Master Oogway that she was doing this for.

She was also doing this for herself. Proving to herself that she had the strength to take Tai Lung down, that the person that Tai Lung had been when she was a child was long gone and that her slither of hope that the person was still somewhere in him could be diminished for good, because the person that had taken over the spotted feline now would never be defeated if she didn't rid herself of those illusions once and for all.

Opening her eyes to focus on the roof of the nearest house in the village as it rapidly came towards her, Tigress flipped over, slid quickly and quietly down the slippery tiles before throwing herself effortlessly up through the air to land solidly on the roof of another house a fair distance away from the first one.

Looking out towards the looming mountains, she breathed in deeply. They almost seemed to be beckoning her. Daring her to disappear into their depths, as if they knew what she was to face and they were ready to face them with her.

Daring to take one last look back at the palace, Tigress thought once more of her master, the Grand Master, her home, the people of the village, and lastly of Tai Lung - very briefly - before looking back towards the landscape that awaited her. This was her chance - possibly her only chance - and be damned if she wasn't going to take it.

"This is what you trained me for."

* * *

"Tigress!"

Miraculously, the feline responded to Viper's call as she took off through the Valley at a shocking speed; something that Viper hadn't fully expected, especially after the evening just gone consisting of Tigress turning herself into a brick wall around them. However despite finally getting her friends attention, Tigress' former look of surprise at her voice quickly turned into a look of stubbornness as she took in the sight of Viper with the three males hot on her tail as they caught up to her. Tigress quickened her pace, no doubt to try and separate herself from her fellow comrades. Viper inwardly sighed, she should have known it wouldn't have been that easy, but after what she and Crane discovered, though it still confused her, she couldn't say she was overly surprised.

"Don't try and stop me!"

 _Oh, that's what she thought._ It suddenly made more sense, of course she would think they were trying to stop her. Why wouldn't she think that? It wasn't as if she knew that Viper and Crane had been in her room finding things that they seriously wanted answers to. However, the serpent was quick to put the leader at rest. "We're not trying to stop you."

"What?" Viper almost laughed at the stumped look that accompanied the question Tigress gave her as Viper easily caught up to slither quickly alongside her - clearly having not expected that - and for the first time since the argument in the courtyard she flashed Tigress a smile.

"We're coming with you!"

Ruby eyes blinked at the serpent for a second before turning away. For a minute, Viper thought Tigress was going to dismiss the idea of them coming with her and demand she do this on her own, as the eye roll wasn't gone unnoticed by the serpent and she started to prepare herself for yet another argument, contemplating whether she should confess that she knew about Tigress' small chest and the contents inside.

But after seeing Monkey's thumbs up on the other side of her, it seemed to snap Tigress out of it and she slowed her pace only just to run in unison with the rest of them, even going so far as to give Viper a small smile of her own as her way of accepting that they were coming with her. Viper still held onto her guard though, even as they jumped off of the last roof into the glow of the full moon before disappearing into the night.

The scaled member of the Furious Five wasn't originally going to ever tell Tigress that she'd been in her room invading her privacy - and she had every reason not to say anything. But considering what she found combined with where they were now going and who they were about to face; Viper knew she needed answers and she needed them sooner rather than later; she had a feeling that they all deserved to know. There was something Tigress just wasn't telling them and somehow the serpent knew that her earlier discovery was - at least part - of the untold story.

 _A map to Chorh-Gom Prison? Now why on earth would she have one of those?_

* * *

 **A/N: No memory this time. There was no spot for me to put one in, nor was there a memory that would have fitted. There will be one in the next chapter, and hopefully Writer's Block doesn't intend to make another visit. I'm sure you can probably see where the chapter got a little bit rushed, but I think it still works well. Here's hoping the next chapter comes a little sooner than this one did.**

 **Lemme know what ya think :)**


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